ICU, CCU, and surgical wards
perform magic behind closed doors

while family and friends engage,
helping their anxiety assuage:

Some tap their feet
to an inner beat;

Some pace back and forth,
as if waiting a birth;

Others leave for a burn,
smelling of cigarettes upon return.

Some close their eyes
Hiding tears and cries;

While some in the middling,
with magazines they’re fiddling;

In the corner there’s chatter,
topics don’t matter;

Just passing the time
is the need most prime.

Individually diverse,
fundamentally the same
each is immersed
in the waiting game.