How Much Illness Counts as an Emergency?

You can go. You can come back.
You could try to carry on
Another night, one more night,

And then in the morning, if
You’re still home in the morning,
You can face the same choices,

The same questions—how badly
Do you hurt, are you impaired,
Do you think the pain will grow,

If you don’t get help? No one
Wants to play the pincushion
In a windowless white room

While tests are ordered, taken,
Considered and debated.
If lucky you’d get released

With a clear and unscary
New diagnosis, sent home,
Possibly with painkillers.

If unlucky you must stay,
Admitted and maybe wheeled
Into hours of surgery

From which you may never or
Never fully recover.
You need to make up your mind,

Even though you’re pretty sure
Biochemicals, weather,
Discomfort, ephemera,

Possibly even your genes
Or your resident microbes
Are deciding this for you.

You can go. You can come back.
You could try to carry on
Another night, one more night.