A little girl with curly hair and a white face <br />A box of toys to be opened 'afterwards' <br />Two stern nurses in crisp white uniforms <br />with crisp white voices and disinfected hands <br /> <br />Lying on a narrow hospital bed <br />Trying to sleep without sucking her thumb <br />The embarrassment of a soapy enema <br />and not enough time to get to the toilet <br /> <br />The sweet suffocating smell of ether <br />She thought she was going to die... <br />Waking up with a throat of hot needles <br />and a fierce determination not to cry <br /> <br />Seven long days of pain and loneliness <br />and the niggling fear of abandonment <br />A tearful reunion with Mummy and Daddy <br />who believed they were doing the right thing.<br /><br />Alison Cassidy<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/tonsillectomy-circa-1950/
