New Poem: Hospital

When I was in hospital, once I started to get

better they would let me get up and walk

about. I used to walk out of my ward, and

down the corridors. Bit by bit I was getting

stronger. One time I got to the end of one

corridor I hadn’t walked down before and

there was a ward in front of me. I was

feeling a bit bored so I thought I would

just pop in and have a look. I noticed

that it was very quiet. For a moment I

wondered if everyone in the ward had

died. It was all so still. Instead of walking

out - which is what I should have done -

I went further into the ward. The beds

were all where they normally are, all

along the walls, some with drips or

machines of some kind. None of the

beds were empty but instead of people

in them there were chess pieces. Not

ordinary chess pieces. Human size ones.

They just lay in the beds. Not moving.

Or making any sound. Pawns, knights,

kings, queens and the rest. I thought

that I would be able to figure out some

kind of order to it: kings and queens in

some kind of special beds, or maybe the

pawns would be the nurses or the cleaners

but no, it was nothing like that. It was

just that there were all the different chess

pieces in the beds. Though now I think

about it, I don’t remember seeing a

bishop. There should have been four.

But I don’t remember there being even

one of them.