At The Hospital

It is a phenomenon that seems confusing
illogical, downright alarming when you're
among the elderly who just moments before 
felt sprightly and energetic, more than confident 
 in self and sound of mind suddenly transformed 
on entering hospital where gravity becomes a 
surly tyrant implacably tiresome, more than
a tad frightening as agency appears to abandon
you and the slightest incline becomes a challenge 
and a burden tightening your chest and dragging 
your legs. What then might conceivably account 
for nurses speaking a language your ears cannot 
interpret quite, their manner that of an adult 
confronting a querulous, confused child? Where 
patience wears a thin smile and perfunctorily 
civil orders are crisply intoned, obedient 
compliance being the order of this day. Where,
examination complete with the aid of modern
medical marvels, the diagnosis is forthright
relief evident in the doctor's face and voice
fatigued by too many health-damning ones
preceding yours, and elderly, poised yet
hesitant volunteers beam with the pleasure
of usefulness when their sickly peers give
praise and fulsome thanks for their presence.
All well-meant, sincere and professional the 
charity in mood and movement obvious in 
catering to the hearing and sight diminished
possessed by those still in command of a
robust interpretive mind, you see. Ah well!