4. CACOPHONY
After
diagnosis
Clara
transferred to Royal Children’s Hospital
Cancer
ward.
Fluorescent
lights, 4 beds to a room
In
each bed, like Clara
Child
linked by arm vein
To
tube, to blinking rhythmically beeping
IV
drip machine and monitor.
This
machine falters every now and then
Sends
out a beeping alarm
Nurse
bustles in
Presses
buttons, checks number display
Smiles
at child, says a word or two
Bustles
out.
Each
bed has overhead TV
On
all the time, whether anyone’s watching
Or
not. Visitors come and go
Usually
a mother stays, weary, trying to be cheerful
We
are high up, view out the window
Expanse
of Melbourne
Attendant
wheels in trolley with meals, snacks
Cleaner
mops, sweeps
Nurse
takes Clara’s blood pressure pulse breath
Extracts
prick of blood, dispenses meds
Occasionally
doctor sweeps in.
So
busy bright bustling
(Remember
I have just come from 12 days
silence,
meditation,
Still, quiet countryside)
Blinking
lights TV noise monitors drips
Cacophony!
How
can anyone focus and heal here?
(Yet
Clara seems content enough
Glad,
I think, her weeks of feeling ill
have
been recognized, explained
are
being treated.)
3 July 2012
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