In Hospital - V - Operation

You are carried in a basket,     Like a carcase from the shambles,     To the theatre, a cockpit     Where they stretch you on a table.     Then they bid you close your eyelids,     And they mask you with a napkin,     And the anaesthetic reaches     Hot and subtle through your being.     And you gasp and reel and shudder     In a rushing, swaying rapture,     While the voices at your elbow     Fade - receding - fainter - farther.     Lights about you shower and tumble,     And your blood seems crystallising -     Edged and vibrant, yet within you     Racked and hurried back and forward.     Then the lights grow fast and furious,     And you hear a noise of waters,     And you wrestle, blind and dizzy,     In an agony of effort,     Till a sudden lull accepts you,     And you sound an utter darkness . . .     And awaken . . . with a struggle . . .     On a hushed, attentive audience.