Hospital Visit Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Hospital visit

I sit in the waiting room there are no magazines
to read anymore, everybody has mobile phones look
at photos of themselves and friends.
I drink coffee from the coffee dispenser is bland as
the hospital walls
Two women sit nearby; one has her hair in a big bun
the other has a smaller on-top of her air, middle-aged
worries about the grandchildren, but outwardly calm.
A woman sitting in an electric wheelchair rolls in
she is not well, opens a plastic bag and throws up
A nurse hurries into the room; this is an emergency
wheels her into a treatment room.
My wife comes out, a big smile on her African face
no, she has not got cancer but needs knee surgery.
She is a colourful sight and wears many rings and bracelets
today, she is dressed in bright red and green, lights up
the dour hospital ambience.
We drink coffee in the canteen while she tells me about
her painful left knee