Day 457

Orders come that the hospital
must be evacuated, despite
the doctors telling them
it’s impossible:  too many patients,
illness and injuries too severe.
The old man gets help
rising from his bed.  Weeks
since he tried to walk.  Slowly
he detaches the iv’s:  fluids,
antibiotics, other medicines
he doesn’t know the use for.
Hands shaking, he moves
through the corridors.  Everyone
broken, stumbling, using the walls
to steady themselves.  He joins
the hobbled procession
out of the inferno the hospital
is already becoming.  Where they are
supposed to be going is far,
farther than the old man
has walked in years.  He takes the arm
of a younger man.  They walk
together.  Where they are going
is only another stopping place,
he thinks, and remembers a rock
he stood on once, years before
in another place,
in a rushing river, attempting to reach
the far riverbank, deafening water
crashing around him, relentless current
threatening to overcome him,
carry him away.