A Hospital Stay - Part Iii

3. The Last Good Day All looks well when half a week's gone, Though I wish the same might be said Of the outside world. As morning sunlight streamed into my lower-floor room Shining bright among the hopeful on a cooler morning Just as Gulliver's god was beginning to matter to me again, Madness claimed the rush hour. Five random shootings occur All over the nearby city Marking the opening Of a festival of Death Soon to rage 'til October's end. Now each day that follows No one outside of walls can call themselves safe. Unknown to me then I was no longer safe myself. Invisible snipers of a different sort Were collecting to come for me. All seemed so well; The crashing feeling of the Sitting-Up Ritual Was receding, and the ally of morphine Less and less required. But a strange constriction announced itself, Some subtle, unseeable python Was beginning to coil about me; The drawing of breath gets harder and harder from this day forth, And no one seems to know why.