Hospital Haiku, part 2

home from hospital …

my phone starts recognising 

my face again 

27/9/24

not a lap cat

but after my absence

lingers there

28/9/24

four days home

I manage to shower

at last

29/9/24

convalescence –

lost in the limbo

of all this rest

*

all my life 

the same navel –

now scar-changed

1/10/24

Hospital Haiku, part 1

suddenly

from my hospital bed

bright moon

*

post-op

every fart

a triumph

23/9/24

bedpan –

dignity replaced

by laughter

*

anaesthetists

handsome tall dark slim –

bonus

*

‘don’t get cranky with us’

nurse at end of  night shift –

crankily

apologised later –

double shift while others

strike for higher pay

24/9/24

ultrasound 

machine woofs like a dog –

can it smell fear?

*

both arms bruised

(blood tests and cannulas)

I file my nails

25/9/24

bowel movement …

I decide I’ve written enough

excretory haiku

*

why can’t I sleep? 

I don’t tell the nurse my grief

friends recently lost

*

scant sleep 

but I see dawn again

through the ward window 

*

waiting, waiting –

 no-one tells me when 

I might go home 

26/9/24