Discharged

for better for worse
the club of Christian happiness is now open
patients are granted a place in heaven
dead or alive
the pharmacies are closed
doctors grope their nurses in utility rooms
and paramedics race each other on the motorways
no tires spared
no lives to spare
the morphine of happilyeverafter has cured
all dead men walking

put
that
pill
down

your slippers on
remove your needles the plasters the bandages the tubes
[they’re all in your head]
lift your knee, now the other,
again
and again
and again
does it hurt?
good
'the pain doesn't go away, you just make room for it'*
keep eyes forward
I’m here, by the lifts
I pressed the button
we’re going down, baby,
way down

put your hand up
right up
laugh and show death the finger
(not that one, silly, the middle one!)
what now?
now we walk out through the double doors,
rip off our gowns, our labels, our old selves
we make snow angels in the grass
then
do the dirty in the pool of love



*quote from The Walking Dead