Visiting Hours

Thinking of you here in this bed
The room is so cold for frozen me
You are sleeping for hours
Getting you something for the pain
I slept maybe two hours
Up for maybe twenty, up for maybe more

Curling up here in this chair
Crossword puzzles and watching you lay there

Dozed off to a Leonard novel
Woke to your apparatus breathing
I felt that woman hurt you

Vulnerable girl I want to protect you
For once your tongue is fumbled
Not as sharp
When she makes her paid demands

And I hate hospitals for all the white and metal
Fluorescent lights and hired help
Depending on you to open your eyes
Ask, "How long did it take? Did your mom stop by?"
Isn't is scary how these same beds
Where people are born, they sometimes hold the dying?
It makes me nervous (for you)
It makes me nervous

Nervous walking the halls
I've seen the lobby waiters half-a-hundred times
The cafeteria feeds those
Nightgown-wearing I.V. walkers
Seem to bring me closer to myself
(And you)

We were born in separate beds
A state away
You grew up confident
And I can't stand the smell of rubber gloves

Now that it's over
(Now that it's over)
When will they let you come home?
(When will they let you come home?)
Now that it's over
(Now that it's over)
When will they let you come home?
To me