Hard floors
and slamming doors,
incessant bleeps
as no one sleeps.

Faster and faster
we all must move,
boxes to tick,
so many things to prove.

In they come,
out they go.
God help you
should you resist the flow

So many labels
and uniforms to disguise,
the stark reality
so well hidden from our eyes.

That all anyone wants
is someone to care,
not be reduced to numbers
that we may compare.

For what if we realised
that both professional and patient the same?
Just transient versions
of this mysterious human frame.

Might we then slow,
maybe once in a while.
Put down our ambitions,
make eye contact and smile?

For all are needy,
trying their best.
All treating each other
in this well meaning asylum
that refuses to rest.

(Poem taken from 12 Labours of Hippocrates)