the hospital could be obsolete
could exhibit with all its pomp
its venerable scrap metal.
Singular is the prophylaxy
at Restoration Hospital
for it repels the virus of time
in the meaning of its first name.
The hospital does not have scrap
metal to exhort, such as old iron
(old, worthy of mention
in a museum; iron, yes, bus historic).
The iron in its medical tools
does not corrode in a clear tone
for it always has the discordant air
of those with no sense of the archaic.
Iron does not quite
have time to become obsolete:
it does not die rusting
while ironing its clients.
Undernourished tuberculars
and run-over drunkards
arrive at the hospital in profusion
anaesthetized or not.
