so many incontinent words

Cherry

By Ewan

Thu, 11 Jan 2018
  • 1252 reads
3 comments
 

so many incontinent words

as if poetry is merely

bleeding out loud

a performance

peace be upon you

despite your blasphemous

use of metaphors

mixed in a kenwood chef

or just plain jumbled

like tombola tickets

drawn at random

by a drunken

late night comedian

in smoky clubs

where working men

used to go

when there were pits

and steelworks

and jobs

for

the snake-belted boys

after school

though written

applications were not required

 

there is no job

for job whose patients

have run out screaming

from a and e

after hours on trolleys

treatment a supermarket sweep

its all chance

and circumstance

for the poor

who are always with us

except when they are against

 

the old man tells his tale

of whines and fury

signifying plenty

though no-one listens

as he is old and discarded

by you and me

for the crime of still being alive

and inconvenient

 

we go

we blow

we live

at the back

of the north wind

the better

to bear

this horror

our homeland

 

so as ye shall reap

many hands pick many pockets

incontinent greed forgives itself

words fail me you and all of us

Certificate U
Poem
Days Like These
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by airyfairy on

Over the years I've been a bit of an A&E frequent flier, with both my parents (now departed) having health problems and my daughter having an ongoing medical condition.  A few nights ago I was in with her again, in the early hours, and despite being brought in by ambulance after five hours she still hadn't seen a doctor.  I have friends who work in the hospital, and indeed A&E, so I'm very sympathetic to the reasons, but others were not and not surprisingly the frustration was boiling over.  Stress and lack of sleep contribute to my daughter's problems, so in the end she decided she'd be better off at home and for the first time ever we left without seeing anyone.  I wasn't happy but couldn't argue with her reasoning.  

But hey, we've got Hunt looking after social care as well, now.  A bit of joined up thinking at last.  He can destroy the system and the vulnerable in a fully co-ordinated fashion.

Submitted by Ewan on

been to A and E for myself in the UK since 1981. Stitches on old rugby wound opened by more rugby. I was out and about within 2 hours. Been with family members in the last 10 years on rare occasions (since I left the RAF). Each time it's worse. I've been to the Spanish equivalent with neighbours and it's nowhere near being the circles of hell that the NHS has become. I have private medical insurance which I had to get when I moved here due to my (relatively) young age and I've never given it up. So far, I've been lucky with my health (I'm touching wood, a good reason to have a pencil on my desk), but living abroad it's very clear that it's not immigration that's the problem in the NHS. It's an ageing population and the swinge-ing cuts made in the name of austerity.

I won't be coming back to live (or die) any time soon if I can help it.

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Hear! Hear! As they say. More power to your pencil, and all that.

Intriguing write.

Parson Thru