It was dark inside the wolf

Sometimes when people go to the emergency room
they never go home.
They are swallowed up by the health care system.

In the hospital, they are masticated, parts
torn away - sometimes whole organs -
a gallbladder, an appendix
or smaller pieces - perhaps a sliver of liver,
or blood, that coveted commodity -
the sicker the patient the more of it stolen.

Not to mention sanity fractured
by interrupted sleep, humanity shattered
away from friends, family, home.

Sometimes when people go to the emergency room
they are churned slowly between hospital and rehab
complications and comorbidities igniting
each other, a slow-motion chemical chain reaction
that ends as often with CODE BLUE!
as it does with a whispered whimper.

#NaPoWriMo 17/30