Emergency Medicine

NaPoWriMo 2026, Day 23

NaPoWriMo 2026, Day twenty-three prompt: Write a villanelle poem that ends with a question.

Emergency Hope

Into ER they come looking for hope.
Sometimes with madness, sirens, and lights.
Seeking pain relief, they need us to cope.

Some walk, some roll, at the end of their rope.
Here we are vulnerability on a gurney with rights.
Into my ER they come looking for hope.

Triaged by a nurse and the aroma of soap.
Help is in scrubs of blue, green, and white.
Seeking relief from the pain, they need us to cope.

Today hospital was not part of my horoscope.
“Doctor, doctor, that nurse really bites.”
Into the ER they came looking for hope.

Soon she’ll be home playing like a happy antelope.
Do not ask for a priest to give me last rights.
Seeking relief from the pain, they need us to cope.

Do we find relief with the stabbing colonoscope?
The Emergency Room has so many sights.
Into ER they come looking for hope.
Are you seeking relief and need us to cope?

Monday’s Rune: Weekends

 

Saturday Morning Doctor

Monday or Tuesday is
the time to be sick.
Those same days are best
for having hospital
admitted surgeries.

Weekend emergency rooms can
get crowded and are often
staffed for far fewer sick people
but what are you gunna do?

Friday night I knew. Damn!
Saturday morning I was
off to an urgent care clinic,
a relatively new ubiquitous
phenomenon in the health care business,
because I was not sick enough
for an ER, and no routine
doctor care would be available
until Monday, if then.

The nice, large, waiting room had maybe
five people, not all patients,
queued up as walk-ins,
first come, first served, maybe.

“Have a seat, Mister Bill. Someone
will be with you in about three hours.”
Urgent? Right.

I read, wrote, and people watched.
Moms with kids had long waits too.
A lady using a walker was whining
and moaning, kind of lost.

But she was soon packed off to an ER by EMS.

It was a classic civilian version
of hurry up and wait. Yet,
I confess to enjoying the sights,
people watching, and the quiet reading time.

Three hours later
I was off to pick up a script.

Look both ways on weekends for doctors at the beach.
Mind the gaps when you clean-catch into the cup.

My favorite doctor song.