I had a nightmare one night
Of a disease I couldn't fight
Laying in a bed in the ER
Doc's were puzzled; my case was bizarre.
I ended up with a hospital stay
Laying on my back, most of the day
Muscles eroding from disuse
All they would give me was apple juice.
Doctors tried hard, nurses nice too
In general tried to help, a caring crew.
Then I heard a nasty laugh somewhere near
I'd heard that laugh before, I was filled with fear.
Just a bad apple, one bad employee
Could give the wrong meds, to make a mess of me
Still in the dream I wished I never came
Grabbed my light saber, turned on the flame.
The force was with me, so I jumped out of bed,
In a dream you can transition from almost dead
I raced down the hall, IV tube came loose
Flew out the window, escaped the revenge noose.
I folded white wings, landed on a hill
Feeling young again, all by power of will
Then I woke up, I was in a nursing home
A year immobile, a year alone.
That was a dream too, two levels to escape
Pretended I was a marathoner, that got me awake.
But it raises a question, society needs trust
Just one bad apple, and it could be dust to dust.
I eventually turned a nursing client,
She draws upon with codes to suit her plan;
All questionable bills, can't be silent,
With no regards to gut trying to scan...
What purpose its significance serves right,
Let alone object the view of value
Its seeker appraised towards such delight,
Found trailing compliment can't dare subdue.
Just like those days I've been calm to be nice,
Every night is cool, happy and content.
But now, I make threats look shy to entice,
Persuading words with gut's raging consent.
Be nice: you are a darling, but be wise
To fit into my heads, your words; off guise
with a broken snowball
she mends
the snowman's cheek
Juvenility meets senility
Childlike to childish formality
Nursing home abnormality
Inmates extend hospitality
I run as if they have a malady
Old men
sit in wheelchair
drool
that call, a face
porcelain
pressed against glass
and dead eyes wrought
from an attic room
watching us
her name badge was
irrelevant
“No, those top rooms
are not used, full
of junk and all locked up”
yet the face watched us
leave; into
the further ghosts
of night
I await sweet Annabelle
as I rest in this lonely bower.
I yearn to hear her angel voice
and feel her healing power.
Others come and others go
in times I'm given to folly,
like buxom Jenny Ramsbottom
and then there's fulsome Molly.
Sometime I forget their names,
it's so hard to keep a tally.
Some bore with their chitter-chat,
especially one named Sally.
I sometime wish for solitude
How long will this persist?
My age is catching up on me
and I doubt they all exist.
But one there is who is for sure
and she's s my favourite nurse.
Begone ye mad romantic dreams.
Sister Jane is down to earth.
"How hard can it be?" she may ask
Before she warms up to the task
"It isn't a toy,"
Sighs the patient boy,
"Think of it as an handy flask!"
Naomi has seen this sight many times before
She knows Mrs. Bee will be gone in two days
If not before
She makes her as comfortable as she can
The doctor comes in; he takes the lady’s hand
Attempts to speak with her
Naomi busies herself cleaning up the room
What do you think? The doctor asks the nurse
Her name is Paula, she is not empathic.
No idea says Paula. It could be two months or two minutes.
Paula spends much of her day playing video games.
Not paying any attention to her patients.
As a certified nursing assistant, Naomi is invisible.
No one asks her thoughts
Or realizes she is there
I am sorry, honey, she says.
I think you will be gone before your relatives get here.
Should we call the relatives? Paula asks.
No idea about the time line, he replies.
Naomi, the certified nursing assistant is correct.
The woman is gone before morning.
Once there was a nursing home man called Fred,
at night he was found in an old gals bed;
with a great big happy smile,
his pajamas in a pile;
when questioned- "THIS is my dead wife" he said !
________________________________
August 27, 2020 (Repost from 2019)
Poetry/Limerick/nursing home FRED
Copyright Protected, ID 20-1281-737-03
All Rights Reserved, 2020, Constance La France
Submitted into the contest, Living It Up For Laughter New/Old
sponsor, Chantelle Anne Cooke
First Place
Old men
sit in wheelchairs, drool
warehouses for people
A meritorious student, half way to her study of medicine
She took up the Nursing Course,
Dorothea, a beautiful young nun with a mother’s heart
Used to take minute care of all the sisters
She met on her way specially the sick ones
As member of a nunnery in sub-urban America.
Let’s not mention the name of the institution or the place,
Suffice it to say that she had a perfect job satisfaction
As it suited to her nature and aim of her life to serve.
All in the nunnery and the neighborhood considered her
A precious gift of God to the humans;
Once during the wee hours of the morning
When everything waits for change
She was alone in a lonely room changing her dress
Preparing to go to her room at the end of the night shift;
But suddenly she swooned bent on a chair,
Without a warning, without their notice died.
As if she changed her soul’s cover
Like a garment of the mortal body
At the end of the night toil.
And the God took care of the soul
At the end of its journey;
A gift of God
Went back to its source.
Apple blossom boogie
Whoopee Whoop Whoop
Double time and triple time
Have some vegetable soup
Fats Dominoes in the hallway
Shuffleboard too
Twist with Chubby Checkers
Add morphine to my stew
I’m catching glimpses
Dancing round my nursing room bed
The nurse starts screaming loudly
I guess I’ve fallen on my head
Give her extra pills someone whispers.
Dancing with Elvis’ blue suede shoes
I shut my eyes and pretend
I don’t hear these nuts and cuckoos
Prancing around the hallway
The alarms go off so loud
I’ve lost a lot of dignity
In this weird old people crowd
Nursing is to restoring peace,
restorative win/win justice,
as surgical judging is to punishing injustice,
retributive win/lose justice.
Nursing ecosystems
and nurturing egocenters
can often be used synonymously,
as nursing is to nurturing.
To nurse a baby
ecosystem
is first to nurture a cherished developing infant
non-zero zone egocenter.
We, nurses and nurturers,
share a nutritional history
of healthcare giving safety
and receiving, in return, wellbeing significance
Delivered best
and most durably,
resiliently,
when care works in coincidental resonant ways
Nurturing all win/win
multilateral directions
ecosystemic
metaphoric,
All polypathic nursing selections
seductions
egocentering healthiest wealth,
analogic
Ecological nursing
felt empowerment
and needed co-investment
in ego/theo-logical nurture.
Do stop your moaning, for Heaven's Sake!
You're not the first to bellyache!
You can scowl, growl, or howl
Or throw in the towel
But no one can go to your Wake!
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