Just Another Day in  A & E.

Do not panic, do not worry

Do not rush over here in a hurry

I just accidentally pressed my alarm

I’m not hurt or in any harm

I haven’t fallen and broken a bone

I just forget to charge my phone

My battery was running low

My fumbling fingers, stiff and slow

I can still speak and talk

Get up from my chair and walk

Tottering slowly down the hall

Making sure I do not stumble or fall

Over the old cat sleeping on the floor

As I carefully step, through the kitchen door

And make myself a pot of tea

Then make it to the bathroom before I pee !

I’m sure the time will come someday

When the ambulance will take me away

To Accident and Emergency

Where I will spend hours on a trolly

They will ask me a thousand questions

About my complications and medications

As they try to assess my situation

And of course their favourite – Any constipation ?

The specialist will see you soon

Or if not, hopefully in the afternoon

They don’t tell you on which day

But here you’ll have to stay

Until the doctor sees your test result

They check your blood pressure and your pulse

And tick the boxes and their list

As you still wait for the specialist

The hours pass slowly, outside it’s raining and wet

Your feeling hungry and dying for a cigarette 

But you can’t leave yet even though you feeling much better

The conversion is boring, the latest scandal and the awful weather

You would rather be anywhere instead

You just want to go home to your own bed

But wait you must for the specialist for news

Just move along slowly until you get through the queues   

The doctors and nurses are run off their feet

Trying to deal with every patient they meet

They must feel like King Canute trying to hold back the tide 

There are moments when they must have cried

Exhausted, frustrated and stressed 

They can only do their best

And still they come, the injured, the sick and the dying

Just another day in A & E….and I am still waiting.

C Denis Murphy. 10 January 2022.