Wait Loss

Tales from the Bedside

(Print Anthology / Code Blue Publishing)

April 2026

Sometimes the best waiting room
is the front seat of your car
outside the hospital
where you can’t see anyone
and they never call your name;
where you can leave when you want
and go home,
reassure your worried lover;
tell her there’s no problem
darker than her deepest fears.
 
Waiting inside, all you ever get
is a toxic exposure to
waiting room carpet,
TV static in the background,
and the not-so-silent silence
of all the other patients
not so silently waiting.
 
Sometimes, the best you can do
is to wait things out outside.
 
At least half the other patients
in the inside waiting rooms
are just waiting for bad news…
 
Why do that, when, instead,
you can roll down your windows,
crank up some tunes and
sing along until the music ends
and you’re cured?
 
All that can be gathered
from waiting room waits
(inside or out)
is what everyone already knows:
waiting is always just waiting
and sooner or later
—for better or worse—
all the waiting ends.