One more night at the hospital
Lights dim to a sickly pall.
Numbing silence, cut by troubled breathing
lies over all like a thick white blanket.
Smells of waste and sharp chemicals
while apparitions with pain-smeared faces
shuffle through the halls.
Televisions splatter dark walls with brilliant colors
no one cares
no one is watching.
Amid muffled, drained voices somewhere outside
I roll over
and think about how I can ask to leave again
tomorrow.