Peril in the Neglecting Infrastructure 

The man cautioned, when you have to stay 
in a hospital
leave as quickly as possible.
High cost of hospital bill? I asked.
That too, but…
Once I had a surgery for kidney stone, he said.
By the time I was ready to leave the hospital,
I got flue that gave me high fever,
which made me suffer from
the unexpected illness as well.
Watching my son on the hospital bed
the warning that the man gave me
gnawed at my nerve.
I found out what the man meant.
The orderly came in my son’s room and
began to work. My eyelids fluttered as he sloshed
a small towel in the toilet water, wringed it,
and wiped the stain on the floor and the bedside table.
I was about to explode in disgust. But
the word was caught in the throat, lest he got
embarrassed or he might do more harm
in revenge during the night when my son was alone.
Hospital orderly, restaurant food servers,
people who work at the base level
should be treated as important as the top ones,
need to be trained
to do their job sanitarily and
responsibly.
It was five-thirty p.m., visiting hour’s end.
I didn’t want to leave my son alone
all the night,
but I had to follow the hospital’s rule. 

©Byung A. Fallgren