V — OPERATION

You are carried in a basket,

Like a carcase from the shambles,

To the theatre, a cockpit

Where they stretch you on a table.

Then they bid you close your eyelids,

And they mask you with a napkin,

And the anaesthetic reaches

Hot and subtle through your being.

And you gasp and reel and shudder

In a rushing, swaying rapture,

While the voices at your elbow

Fade — receding — fainter — farther.

Lights about you shower and tumble,

And your blood seems crystallising -

Edged and vibrant, yet within you

Racked and hurried back and forward.

Then the lights grow fast and furious,

And you hear a noise of waters,

And you wrestle, blind and dizzy,

In an agony of effort,

Till a sudden lull accepts you,

And you sound an utter darkness...

And awaken... with a struggle...

On a hushed, attentive audience.