Coma!

I’d only woken an hour before

And it seemed to cause a stir,

With people pouring into the room,

Coming from everywhere,

They looked excited, stared at me

And I stared right back, confused,

But nobody said a word to me

And I started feeling used.

 

‘What the hell…’ I began to say,

But a nurse told me to hush,

Stuck a thermometer into my mouth

Then tried to feed me mush,

She cleared the room and a doctor came

And read my chart with a frown,

‘Welcome back to the world,’ he said,

‘It’s changed, since you were around.’

 

I couldn’t make head or tail of this,

I didn’t know where I was,

Loaded with tubes, I raised my arms

And flapped like an albatross,

‘Let me get out of here,’ I said,

‘I need to get up and walk!’

‘Your legs won’t carry you anywhere

Just yet, but we have to talk.’

 

He said I’d been out a long, long time,

It would take more time to adjust,

To start, he asked if I knew my name

So I told him, Benjamin Rust.

And then I remembered the bicycle

That I’d ridden down to the shop,

And the four wheel drive that had sped right by,

Too bad that it didn’t stop!

 

Then slowly figures came back to me,

A head full of raven hair,

Those pouting lips that had tempted me

And a dimple or two to spare,

She’d arched her brows in a quizzical way

When I’d shown her the double bed,

Then laughed, ‘You’re getting ahead of yourself,

I first need a ring,’ she said.

 

We’d courted all through the summer months

And made love late in the fall,

I’d said, ‘I don’t want a part of you,

I’d be content with it all!’

We wed in a little country church

Where the rain dripped down from the eaves,

And strolled from the vestry, hand in hand

As a breeze had fluttered the leaves.

 

My heart had leapt in that sterile room

As I caught the scent of her hair,

I said, ‘Is Jocelyn waiting here?’

The doctor continued to stare.

‘You have to know that your world has changed

And the change may bring you tears,

You haven’t been out for a week or so,

But over a number of years.’

 

I was feeling the panic rise in me

As those dreaded words sank in,

‘Over a number of years,’ he’d said,

As if I’d committed a sin!

And then, ‘How old do you think you are?’

I replied, ‘I’m twenty-two!’

He shook his head at the foot of the bed,

‘There’s a shock still coming to you.’

 

He wouldn’t say, and he went away

As I lay there, feeling grim,

So I asked the nurse, ‘How old am I?’

But she said, ‘Just wait for him.’

At three in the afternoon I sensed

A shadow, stood at the door,

And there was a matronly woman there

Who must have been fifty-four.

 

She said, ‘I can’t believe you’re awake,

We’d long given up on you,

They asked me to come to the hospital,

And I needed to see, it’s true.’

Her hair was grey, but she had a way

That dredged a dream from the past,

She said, ‘Do you know me, Jocelyn?

It’s good to see you at last.’

 

The horror rose in my throat at that,

My heart hung still in my chest,

‘My God, you look like your mother now…’

‘I knew that you’d be distressed.

I got a divorce when you didn’t wake

After ten long years in this bed,

I feel so sad, but I wed again…’

Her words, like knives in my head.

 

I’d lain in a coma, thirty years

Why didn’t they let me die?

Jocelyn said she paid for me

In hopes, she didn’t say why.

This world is a terrifying place

When you lose the love of your life,

And wake to the loss of thirty years…

I’ll slit my veins with a knife!

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[TPK Stories]

How terrible it must have been to lose that much time ... entertaining tale.

[Claire in VA]

I felt it coming! My goodness, I wished and hoped
for a different outcome for the man in the bed.
This is a very entertaining piece, David.
You are a talented man.

[Daniel Sala]

Oh dear, poor protagonist of the poem...!

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

O! The poor dear. I imagine that would indeed be a terrible shock to the system; and if that much living has passed you by, why bother to live at all?

The last line says it all ...

[Marie]

It's a terrible thing to have lost that much time. One can't blame Jocelyn for what she did. Life moves on whether we can move with it or not.