THE DAY MY WORLD STOOD STILL
It keeps playing on my mind, night after night
I don’t know what to do to keep it away from me
More to me like a torment, a real grilling torment
Every night, as I put my body on the bed, my head on the pillow
It comes back, like a stalker that has been following me around all day
Waiting for me to land before it unleashes its attack
With eyes wide open, mouth fully a-gap, it keeps screaming with taunting rhyme
The incident of 22nd October 2011
How could I forget so easily?
That day, that mournful accursed day
When the evil side of nature met me
In my stack nakedness, without any help at sight
When I was locked in the cul de sac of a corner
With snaring look on its eyes, my enemy laughed out loud
Ready to make a mince meat out of me
As it attacked me from every side
It was the hour, the unholy hour
When my life was put at a pause while life goes on
Without any permission or endorsement from me
I felt deprived, raped and victimised
The day my world stood still
And another page of life was opened for me
I shouted and panted, struggling to live
For I felt I still got some business unfinished
I still have a mile and half to go
The child of my dream, conceived yet unborn
The pang of birth stillborn to be
I would have been glad and complete if it was born alive
The child of my brain for years, my dream, my endless dream
I pleaded to my enemy
To give me a time or two,
If only I would get my dream realised,
Wouldn’t mind to wave the world good bye
The feeling keep flooding back, like an over flowing river bank
I can’t help it; it overwhelms me, beyond my conscious control
How I could have done things differently
To keep this cup passed over me
The incident of 22nd October 2011
It was a bright morning on that fateful day
On that third Saturday of October 2011
I woke up from sleep with a start
As I cringe with pains from the right half of my body
As heavy and paralysing as a body fresh from the morgue
I’d thought I was going down into the pit hole
Of some mighty coronary disease; the STROKE
That ate my dad alive, in the wake of the nineties
Knowing fully well that I had cholestrolaemia
I am susceptible to them likely diseases
I have been fighting it in fury as hard as I could
Through my diet, what I eat and drink
Please God I would outlive them diseases
With determination discipline and self control
But you never know, we men are mere mortals
That are so frail and tend to fail
Imperfection is our nature, no one knows it all
Sickness is in our DNA, no way an escape route
As long as we are still entrapped in this mortal body
This Judas that sold his master
And took 30 pence for a price
For the hand that fed him for years
And made sure he never suffered from wants
And defended him from his enemies,
From hunger, thirst, heat and cold
Yet he’d never got satisfied
And sought to do it his own way
Yeah, my enemy took its time
The right moment to close me in
I thought to myself, hang on, I could do with help
From paramedics at the eleventh hour
And so, I picked up my phone
And called the emergency number 999
You could imagine how relieved I was
To hear a soft voice at the other end
With the last strength reserved
I yelled out a cry for help and was assured
That help is on the way
It wouldn’t be long, I will live I tell myself
Sooner than expected, they were around
Them paramedic crew; a man and woman they were
With their ambulance for help
Ready to render help at any cost
To give my life a second chance
With my last energy I pulled myself
As I strolled down to answer the door
For them paramedic to gain entrance
At their feet I fell, with lousy eyes pleading for help
For them to take me to the hospital
With such dexterity as for professionals
They helped me into their ambulance
First we have to run a quick check on you, they said
While they fitted their medical equipment on me
Oh boy, stay cool, they calmed me
We have seen much worse case than this, they bragged
‘Its not much deal your case’ they said
‘Go back to your room, lye down and sleep it off’ they advised
In time you will feel better and stop crying wolf
I took their words for it
And did the way they instructed
That was it for me, so to say
I slipped to the world beyond in coma while I slept
Only to wake up three weeks later
Bound unto me with pipes and tubes
In the intensive care unit at st Georges hospital
Left to fight for my dear life
It was then; I was greeted by him, the doctor
With a team of nurses at hand to help
As he explained to me the nature of my enemy
Meningococcal septicaemia, he called it
A dangerous predatory super bug, it is
That kills its prey in minutes
I looked at myself in disgust
With ischemic hands and gangrenous feet
My palms and soles covered with blood
That sipped from the vessels
As my enemy pounced on me with fury
As it celebrates its new sumptuous prey
I said to myself, ‘oh well, it is over now’
It will not do anymore damage to me now
I have succeeded to run into the tower of medical fortresses for safety
At least them doctors and nurses were here now and handy
To match strength to strength against my enemy
Like a kid whose father came around
As he was about to be bullied
I chuckled to myself with a sigh of relieve
That the storm is over now
I will be fine in a day or two
I was about to pop the champagne and Moet
In celebration to the victory well gained and dusted
How could I have known, that my enemy drew back only to tighten its belt
Like the bull getting ready to attack, it clawed back to gather momentum
To return with a devastating blow
That would see the end of me
Oh! How wrong I was, so naïve and innocent in my thinking
Never did I have a clue, that it was only the beginning
A foretaste of what will take a while,
Longer than I would ever imagine, in my fantasised world
The battle line is just been drawn
Like the clashing of the titans
A raging war is about to begin
A massive fight between the good and evil, life and death
Between the light and darkness who would have the upper hand
Like the biblical tale of David and goliath
A war that will take many months to decide,
Who got the power of steel?
It was indeed like the fierce battle of Britain
As the doctors fight with my enemy
To release me from the grip, the powerful hold of my enemy
Who would not throw in the towel
To surrender without a fight
Nor let go of me at the mere sight of medical powers
My enemy was fully determined
To claim my life for sure
A bird at hand worth more than thousand
That flies around in the woods and air
It would be daft to say good bye
To the prey it has spent time to aim
An apple that fell at the foot of a blind man
When two elephants fight, the grasses bear the brunt
Of two mighty powers in display
As the elephants fight, the grasses give way
And suffer under their heavy weight
So it was the case for my body
That serves as the bouting ring
The enemy deploy many tactics
To claim its mighty reign
With sting bombs of dangerous rashes
That bath my skin through and through
Leaving my whole body old and wrinkly
Like that of grand pa in his nineties
I had to shade my skin
Like the snake that hibernates in winter
Then came again another hurl of attack
Another deadly upper cut blow
In a bit to smash me up to pieces
A clean knock off my guard
My hands as stiff as a rusticated bolt
That has spent thousand years unscrewed
As though it wanna make sure
That its prey has no way to escape
It squeezed my heart to a pop
Making sure my heart stopped pumping blood again
‘Pericarditis’ the name it was called,
The situation I found myself
I groan with incredible pain
Like the swallow I clamoured and clanged
How can I forgive my self
The thought of losing my feet
My enemy ate me up
Like the praying mantis dicing away
Its food bit by bit
I lived the horror, to see my feet giving away bit by bit
Every other day under the knife
Of plastic surgeon in the operating theatre
At the end of the last bout, the enemy did loose its ground
And gave in to the power of medicine
But not until it has left some marks on the ground
That showed it gave its last and final shot
Before its arsenal of nuclear warhead run dry
From the crown on my head to the rug under my feet
The enemy left its footprint,
That will live to haunt me, the rest of my days on earth
Like the mortal signatures of the famous
It left its indelible signs
Like the scramble of the land of great mother Africa
By the old colonial masters
So was my body partitioned between them two forces
The doctors claimed a huge portion of me
But some little parts were claimed by the enemy
As it planted its permanent flag of ownership
I was left sulking and licking my wounds
As I counted my blessings and losses
My hearing is gone completely to the enemy
With no possibility of ever coming back
A condition of profound bilateral deafness
My enemy, it cut me off, from the world of sound for ever
Them doctors were smart and brilliant
There is always ‘plan B’ they assured me
A high-Tech gadget they buried under my skull
Cochlear implant is the way forward
As an alternative route back to the world of sound
My feet, it left with partial amputation,
With muscles and skins to reconstruct
And series of painful and traumatic surgical procedures
To undo the damages done to me body
All thanks to the ignominious power of the evil one
It’s still ever green in my memory
The fearful feeling that grips my mind
Every time I sign the consent forms before each operation
I feel like a condemned criminal
Subject to death sentence by hanging
Like an adventurer setting off to sail
To an unknown far away destination
Only certain that he could come back, alive or death
Oh, I could still feel the spasm of pain
Running down my spine, reverberating
As I submit myself to him, the anaesthetist
Who in turn pass me over to the power of propofol
That would keep my body muted and mortified
Under the knife of the surgeon
As my feet were chopped away bit by bit
I always woke up confused, in the theatre recovery room
Still unsure which one is real, am I in the land of the living or death
As him, the Anaesthetist used suction pipe, to clear my breathing track
It left me with a mix feeling, happy vs. angry, which one is right?
To live for another day, only to repeat the horrible same
Or to have died and give it a rest
All the struggles of daily living
Whenever I lied down on my bed,
Lonely, cold and forlorn in the middle of the nights
I always stared hard and long up the ceiling
As if it owed me some explanations or reasons of some sort
While my mind wanders away, a million miles away
In thoughtful thinking and review
Of the incident of 22nd October 2011
How on earth did I come here?
I keep asking my self.
Where on earth am I gonna go from here?
As the future lied before me serene
I could not but shake my head
Like a dog that missed its prey
It was really hard, to take them all in at once
Then would my mind throw in its spanner at work
With a streak of thoughts splashing around
Leaving my head all over the places
Is this situation because of my past?
Have my past sins found me out?
And decided to deal with me?
Was it God trying to frustrate my plan?
Cos I left my former life behind
Or is this the only way forward?
To my own destined end
I did not know what to believe
I got them texts and messages and even get-well-soon cards
From my friends old and new, both near and far away
Some with thoughtful sympathy, as their heart went out with me
While some with a warning remind,
‘You’d better get in touch with your past’ they said
You might have been faster than your shadow
And its doing your head in
Every night, I keep beating myself up,
For being a good lad
Who wants to play by the rules
Not ready to come across
As rude, uncompromising, arrogant and aggressive
I wished I was a little more assertive
In my encounter with them paramedics
On the 22nd of October 2011
In my cocoon, the hospital bed
Where I have spent several months unending
Lying on the spot, bed-bound and helpless
I guess the bed could have had enough of my backside
Cos morning evening and night
My bum lye stuck on the foam motionless,
I thought it’d dig a hole for itself
From many days unmoved
As a result of the complications
From the incident of 22nd October 2011
Enclosed in McEntee ward in the hospital
Come day come night, come autumn, winter, spring and summer
While I was stuffed with a cocktail of medications
From the doctors and the nurses
Who are fighting tooth and nail
To keep my poor heart beating
Or less I would have been death
From the complications result
Of the incident of 22nd October 2011
Soldier goes soldier comes
The array of faces of doctors, nurses and care assistants
As their shifts keep going on and on; day by day, week by week
And even month to month
I keep saying my little prayers in my inner sanctuary
‘Dear lord in heaven above, when will this come to an end’
As time flies ahead unstoppable,
I could do nothing but standing in the morning sun
I would be sitting when the evening comes
Watching when the shifts roll in
And then I would watch them roll out again
It’s like I am sitting on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away as I waste the time of the day
I have left my former life at the altar
I headed off In search of the Golden Fleece
Cause I had nothing to be excited for
And it looked like nothing gonna come my way
So I took a dangerous gamble that ended me here
Looks like nothing is gonna change
Every thing still remain the same
I can’t do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I will remain the same
I have to keep sitting here resting my bones
And this loneliness wouldn’t leave me alone
It is more than three thousand miles
I roamed away from my former life
Just to make a fresh start, a new life
Now I am gonna sit at the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away, as my world stood still.
But I am much excited to see what future holds for me
I hope to live to tell the tales to the generation yet unborn’
A tale of my journey to the land of eternal pain and misery
Where everyone answers ones own name
With no one else to give a helping hand
It’s a stack reality of life