Some have commented my poems are one sided,

Against the NHS ‘that’s done so much for me’;

On the contrary, the reason it’s been chided

So often’s to afford opportunity

To put its house in order, and emerge the more strong armed;

We all need the NHS, but as was promised;

It hurts people that it has itself disserved, or even harmed,

Acts in bad faith, and is often plain dishonest

‘Not my experience of things at all, mate,

It’s a national institution, you talk rot’;

I can understand your reasoning, why I’d seem like an ingrate,

But I’ve been there, and you – as yet – have not

You just wait until your own ‘loved one’ should have their care withdrawn,

Till they trample kinship, marriage to the ground;

Stand by for all your notions of a hospital

To be violently, without warning, turned around

It’s my misfortune (perhaps that’s why I stay anonymous)

Forever to be frowned on, that’s my fate;

A voice that’s doomed to cry out in the wilderness;

You’ll shut your ears, not wish to know – till it’s too late…