As he wheezed and the pump pumped on,
The ventilator beeped somewhere and breathed its last.
The fire doused new bride felt her dreams
Ebbing away
As her burns marked end of glittery dreams.
She saw all , uttered nothing ,
As she remembered her journeys to the hospital,
Twenty years ago.
Then it was for ailing father,
To be operated mother,
Or the dearest grandmother
dying in coma .
She still remembered the pungent spirit
And she liked the smell!
Today when she is rubbed with
Same spirit,she didnt relish it though.
From the days of endless waiting out of ICU
For a dear aunt
To the nights
Now she spent alone,
She matches her breaths
Sometimes with the ticking clock
Or the laboured breaths of next bed patients…
As she counts days to be out of her misery
And the lonely dreamless nights.
An apposite companion piece to the author’s preceding Hospital Diaries ( Part 1 ).
A poignant and profound poem.