A visit from The Healing Muse: 'The Five Star ICU'

Deirdre Neilen, PhD: Elise Chadwick, high school teacher and poet, describes an upscale ICU, which nonetheless can't offset the ordeal unfolding in this beautiful room.

"The Five Star ICU"

There's space enough

for two chairs and a cross-legged

sprawl in the five star ICU.

Extra-wide bed offers contortions

to delight a yoga guru.

Fluorescent monitor

squiggles appear

disappear

then

reappear

in hypnotic loop.

It's quiet here.

No sticky floor squeaking.

Nobody shouting

from across the hall.

Even upward facing

bulbs beam soft light.

No institutional glop either.

You order from a glossy menu

boasting sandwiches made

on artisanal bread.

We spend companionable time.

You wear headphones moaning

part boredom, part pain.

IV bags of clear fluid

a swarm of jellyfish suspended

tangled tentacles dangling drip

ever so

slowly into your veins.

Dad on his computer escapes

into a world of words

and shipments.

And me,

determined to document

then bury this nightmare

so deeply it will never

ever surface,

no matter the Richter magnitude

of the next quake that threatens

to unearth it.