Poem from the collection 'Sahara in my hands' (1992) by the Danish poet Morten Søndergaard

Time is a bald woman

hammering her head against the walls

spitting out stones over the marble floor

of a white hospital.

No one can remember

when or why they came.

There is a smell of disinfectant

deep in the shadows, and some people

lie strapped to metal beds

in the dark and listen.

Amongst the sounds

that still keep them awake

the tapping of the

blind man’s stick can be heard

against the slate roof.