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Hospitals are built on details
There is no flying in the air here
Everything is just measured and spelt out
It is just a huge array of beds
With colors for every sickness
It is a merry go round
Ever revolving
With this designated
To do this
To do that
Nothing dreamy about hospitals
A high fever
A bloody stool
A tortured pain
Means a whole series of events
And each doctor and nurse
Patient and orderly
Clerk and secretary
Run rapidly ahead
To finish each countless detail
That surrounds each sickness
And requires as much attention
As each stitch
In a pair of jeans
Hospitals are filled with bottles
And pills
Papers and drills
All kinds of paper pins
Assortments
As tiny and large
As are needed to cure the patient
For a further walk
Into the world of matter.

Irwin R. Shaw - May 27th 1982