Wash it Off

I want to wash it off my skin

The stench that will not leave, weaves its way into my nostrils, lingers

The fingers pressing into me, needles invading, pervading my sense of autonomy

I am but one of many

The feelings that have crept upon me

The weakness I don’t want me to be

The taste that fills my mouth and stays on my tongue

The old people that do not make me look young

The many sounds of carrying and fetching, blood pressure machines and retching

Trolley wheels, nurse’s heels squeaking on the tiled corridors

Humans leaking life and hope, crying that they just can’t cope

I need to get out of here

Oppression, pain and thick black fear

I need to brush it off my teeth

Remove it from my hair

Wipe it from my brow, how does it pervade me so

What type of place is this that leaves its mark

Is restoring me and is yet so dark

This hospital with all its smells and sound

That around my fragile brain are wound

Now I’m out I never want to return to there

For all its brilliance and its care

I will leave here and enter into the light of home

The familiar spaces I used to roam

And all this will drain away, fade into just memory

For surely the key to my recovery

Where this experience if hospital will be finally shed

Will be at home where I can sleep in my own bed