Almost Better

A hospital descended into madness
when the ground broke open splitting
a quadrant of the building clean apart.
A transparent plume of something heavy
poured out of the gash like it was plastic
carried upward by the wind.
This dissipated out into the nostrils
of the people in the building
going on about their lives of keeping
people on their feet or helping someone
that they knew feel almost better.

In the waiting room he eaves dropped
on an old woman in a giant hat
who talked with a man whose face reminded
him of a horsefly, but up close
like how you’d see one in a book.
They were talking about chess
and different principles for forcing
things to go the way they wanted.
The whole place was just a silence
with white drywall over checkered tile floors.

The janitor listened to talk radio that described
different dimensions and took calls from those
who spilled out all their secrets.
The cooler of organs fell from their hands
as they carried it out of the basement.
The off duty surgeon who led the way
suffered a stroke brought on by over thinking
all the different kinds of pain in metamorphosis.

The nurses unbuttoned their collars and took it easy
on the benches in the hallway while
the pharmacy was raided for whatever
they decided they would need.
The circuit breaker was paper-clipped
to strobe the lights throughout the building
until the pupils in their heads were like a heartbeat
they could feel but never hear.

The party descended into chaos but the cafeteria
opened as normal in the morning
with the workers there to cater to the breakfasts
of those waking at their posts;
and the highway ran right past them,
but from out there no one noticed
how the world could move right under
all our feet.