the first time I was given morphine, after my back surgery... but I think also the last! |
MORPHINE NIGHTS The ceiling melts, swirls and trembles like jelly A distant throb like a sleeping monster’s belly Lurks at the edge of the darkened room As the night uncurls in the hospital womb. A rather large insect has entered the ward It trembles with rage at being ignored It shakes the dew off its foot-high wings Its body is acrawl with noisome things. Slowly it approaches my bed quite silent When suddenly it is arrested by the scent Of fumes lazily rising from my skin - from the antibiotic wetsuit I’m in. The insect is gone but what have we here? Half the room has begun to disappear And lies open instead to the sky and weather A wild wide grassland gone mauve with heather. But not quite empty nor as bleak as it seems For now I notice it, it does fairly teem With stumbling giant and shadowy beasts Camouflaged in the clothes of the recently deceased. All headed, ponderous and staggering All worlds and dimensions reconfiguring In the direction where, immobile, I lie Clutching the pain-pump, ready to die... But no sooner than I close my eyes, Which at the time seemed most wise, All is silence and a dark warm rain Drops down enveloping all pain. - by Shona Rain http://www.writing.com/authors/Rain |