You Can Take Him Home Now...... Poem by krishnakumar chandrasekar nair

'You can take him home now', the men in white said
Speaking politely, softly and so very gently
All they wanted perhaps was to free one bed
For a case that had some little hope.......
And my father-in-law a third stage cancer patient
Had occupied it far, far too long for their comfort
And so we took him on a stretcher with new wheels
Into the lift that had brought him up; three, two, one....
Back into blinding sunlight and then to the ambulance white
But this time no siren blaring, just slow moving
One hundred and twenty miles in no damn hurry
Almost stopping at every hump, pot hole
Even as he occasionally opened his eyes
'what time of the day is it..?
Did all of you eat, have tea...? '
Incessant questions from a feverish mind
And at dusk when we arrived at the familiar gate
Famished and tired, he had turned over into his hazy world
And we back to our vigil as the crickets began to weep....