by Cristina Nehring (May 2026)
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All the clocks are wrong in this infernal hospital.
Some say quarter to nine;
Some say have past four;
All the poker-faced patients stare at the door
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Waiting for the glory of a nurse to appear
And steer them off to surgery.
It is better not to know the hour
Since someone put us into navy blue robes
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And confiscated our glasses and rings
Turning us into indistinguishable things
Awaiting what the expert brings.
Whether good or bad, heaven or hell
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There comes a moment we prefer it to Purgatory.
Any tale is better than none:
History is what makes us human,
And it is not only the time that stops in this place
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But our individual nature erodes apace.
So we wait with the patience of secular saints
To become simply
Mortals once more.
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Table of Contents
Cristina Nehring‘s most recent book is The Child Who Never Spoke: 23 1/2 Lessons in Fragility. She is also the author of A Vindication of Love which made the front page of the New York Times Book Review as well as two books in French. She writes for Atlantic, Harper’s, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. She lives in Paris with her daughter. See more at www.cristinanehring.net.
Follow NER on Twitter @NERIconoclast
