Visiting Hour

it does your back
your soul your hopes
that dredge along the edges
that trail towards the Wards
to find dying or find living

bleeding hospital greens
paint an alien place
where echoes of unseen
terrors dance with echoes
of your racing heart

will there be a smile
or tears or an anxious
doctor tapping gloom
within you twist contort
speared by that dread

how meaningless is time
for those who wait and wait
the empty hours the Fates
they curse and pray
in caustic corridors