by Domhnall Brannigan
Hippocrates in the ED
In the hiatus of a difficult night
Among unwashed hordes:
Disease and pending death lurked
As traps to find me out
Diaphoresis
Fear and icterus
Sanguine in mind but just that:
Exsanguinating
But first we must do no harm!
This is true torture:
Must I be cruel to be
Kind?
In deed indeed
The Hypocritic Corpus
As I stand over this
Screaming
(human?)
Patchwork
Scarred
Scared
Amphetamine fuelled
Pulsing rage
With a syringe of midazolam
(fantazaslam!)
Invoking the Mental Health Act
(the gospel according to psychiatry!)
As if I believe in it
I realise this does not rest easy
With the mumbled Greek of Hippocrates,
Sworn in a marbled hall in another life
When I believed in it
