The Fallen Birdman

Sometimes lots of stuff that is good all happens at once, but most times lots of stuff that's bad comes together.
We have a patient on the ward who has lupus. She's one of the most interesting people I've ever met, and the disease is stripping her of herself. She broke down in tears the other day. I didn't know what to say, and all I could do was get her tissues. I took her some flowers today... a little tiny vase I found in a shop and bougainvillea I pinched off some random bush. I felt pretty useless, even more than usual- but she seemed to like them and her room looks better now.
And there was that car accident on the weekend. No matter how much I try to avoid people who talk about it, everyone talks about it, constantly, incessantly.
It's been a depressing couple of days....
We had to study this poem in Yr11. I've always loved it.

The Fallen Birdman by Roger McGough
The oldman in the cripplechair
Died in transit through the air
And slopped into the road.

The driver of the lethallory
Trembled out and cried: 'I'm sorry,
But it was his own fault'.

Humans snuggled round the mess
In masochistic tenderness
As raindrops danced in his womb

* * *

But something else obsessed my brain,
The canvas, twistedsteel and cane,
His chair, spreadeagled in the rain,
Like a fallen birdman.