![\"Image](\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/daf552acf2bbbfcbbc724b2e098faceb.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ward 72, Room 21<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n by Jim Aitken<\/em><\/p>\n Through the large hospital window Though happy enough to be in here And engage with the multicultural staff Nurse Agatha from Nigeria came in Teresa from Porto came in with tea There were Irish and Asian doctors, It seemed the workers of the world But they were understaffed and tired That was tinged with anger at those Take those not born here out of the NHS Being here confirmed all I have held true \u2013 Ward 72, Room 21 by Jim Aitken Through the large hospital windowthere are mountains of grey cloudwhich resemble the state of my lungs. Though happy enough to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":15125,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[2755],"class_list":["post-15126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-2","tag-nhs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
there are mountains of grey cloud
which resemble the state of my lungs.<\/p>\n
considering the condition I am in,
I decide to make the best of it.<\/p>\n
given the task of aiding my recovery
and sending me back home again.<\/p>\n
to infuse my arm with antibiotics
and we spoke of Chinua Achebe.<\/p>\n
and biscuits and we spoke about
Pessoa, Saramago and Paula Rego,<\/p>\n
cleaners from Poland and China
and plenty of Scots all caring for me.<\/p>\n
were coming together in my name
and this was an infusion of pride.<\/p>\n
and carried on regardless of demands
filling me with a deep admiration<\/p>\n
deliberately cutting back public services
and raising racist calls to Stop the Boats.<\/p>\n
and it collapses like a castle of cards
as it would surely deserve to do.<\/p>\n
that we are all one, that united we stand
and divided we will all definitely fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"