Last time I stayed in hospital
I felt like such a fraud
It never would have happened
If I’d not been feeling bored
I took out my best needles
To try to string some beads
But dropped the thread under the bed
And crawling on my knees
Wasted almost half an hour
In a wholly futile search
To find the reel with only feel
Was never going to work
But giving up too hastily
In retrospect was worse
I shuffled back and heard a crack
Then hopped to muffled curse
For I’d stood upon the cushion
In which I kept my pins
The x-ray showed my poor big toe
Joint skewered, for my sins
They pulled it out with pliers
Having made my foot go numb
I hope that was the last time
I do something quite so dumb
Katherine Shirley 