Pat Bryden

Respiratory 2003 

Tubes, drips, starvation 

Next bed moaning, toilets dark 

Inaccessible. 

In the Ward 

I am prone, in bed 

Window, open to day’s dawn 

And I’m still alive. 

She Lay 

Jan. 1995 

In a makeshift ward 

She lay with septicemia 

Her neighbour only cried 

For cheese – ‘The Laughing Cow’ 

In sympathy I bought some 

Brought it – my mother’s eyes  

Signalled: 

She has gone.