When I was ill
And did not know myself as ill
A pain in my side was what I said
I reported to the hospital as bid
And there spent many hours
Being assessed
This test that test
Then an MRI
Into that big tube
I just lie down
I’d been ferried there
By wheelchair
Porters ever push
Passengers down endless corridors
Everyone was kind
Easy on the mind
We’ll find out what’s really wrong with you
It was while on returning
I was parked in no man’s land
A darkened corner hidden from the light
A porter left me said another
Would pick up fairly soon
I sat there and shivered
As with fright
The shaking was an effect of MRI
I guessed – no other thought had I
It was the loneliness abandonment I felt
For those few minutes till a porter came
No one knows I’m here
This isolated spot reduces me to nothing
And I fear
A porter came and I was back in swim
Among the many waiting for their turn
Turned out I had a blood clot on my lung
Embolism serious condition
Got the tablets now and so hey-ho
Keep on going mobilise just go
But those few moments
Come on back to me
Not self-pity but helping me to see
That abandonment for some is real indeed
The loneliest of places
Every need
Unmet unsatisfied
That day I felt the loneliness
Could have cried
Brian Fahy
28 May 2021
+ After reading ‘The Hospital’ by Patrick Kavanagh, this memory came back to me. BF
Erris Poetry 