EMERGENCY ROOM (ER)

Banner blazoned in white and red.
Why white and red colors?
You enter the ER bloody red and
Leave the ER bloodlessly white and
Needing a blood transfusion.
Blood to diagnose your illness,
Blood to assess you financially, and
Blood to store for later testing.
After being bled white and blue,
You are left vulnerable to nosocomial infections.

There are all types of coughing;
Barking cough, sibilant cough,
Explosive cough, and staccato cough.
There is projectile vomiting,
Bilious vomiting and posseting.
Enter the talkers, talking to self,
Muttering, mumbling, murmuring, and Masticating without eating food.
Proclaiming o’yeah, o’men, o’dear, and
O’God to no one in particular.

There are head bleeders, hand bleeders,
Leg bleeders, and undetermined bleeders.
There are limpers, limping on one leg,
Limping on both legs, limping with
And without crutches, limping while
Supported by another human or cane.
Be wary of the unprovoked acoustic assault,
By medical personnel, yelling names or
The hallucinators, verbally attacking
And warding off imaginary attackers.

There are those with heart attacks,
Those with brain attacks, and those
Whose hearts and brains need attacks,
To preserve and prolong their lives.
There are women laboring in pain,
Drug addicts crying pain, to get
Their supply of opioids and fentanyl.
There are those with spiritual attacks
An euphemism for psychotic
Religionism.

There is the hair parade; long hair,
Short hair, rasta hair, grey hair
Black hair, brunettes, blondes
Brown hair, and salt and pepper hair.
Here comes the gurneys and wheelchairs,
Some with IV poles, some without,
Drivers running pell-mell all over
The ER and threatening limbs;
Limbs of staff, visitors, and patients.

Next are the smells of the ER
Smell of unwashed bodies,
Smell of alcohol and hemp,
Smell of blood and urine.
Can you diagnose by hair,
By smell, by words, by the looks,
By sound or no sound, and by speech?
Yes, the Emergency room, a cacophony of
Sounds, colors, smell, looks and wounds.
This is really an Emergency situation.