Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the ward
not a patient was stirring, the nurse she was bored;
the IV’s were hung by the sick beds with care,
with hopes that they wouldn’t lose all of their hair.

The patients were nestled all snug in their beds,
while visions of cancer cures danced in their heads;
the nurse with her stethoscope, red shawl and cap,
had just done the rounds and was taking a nap.

When out in the hall there arose such a din,
she sprang from the chair to see who had came in;
away to the front door she ran through the ward,
and tripped on a kidney dialysis cord!

She fell on her bum on the new-polished floor,
got up, said a swear-word then ran to the door;
when, what to her wondering eyes should astound,
but an orderly bringing the drug-cart around.

With a little old male nurse, so peaky and sick,
the name on his badge simply called him Old Nick;
more yellow than ducklings and eyes bloodshot red,
he pulled out the drug packets, and then he said:

"I’ve Mescaline! Heroin! Ecstasy too!
Some Hashish and Vicodin tablets for you!
To the bed at the end! To the man near the wall!
I’ve wonderful beautiful drugs for you all!"

As a con man before a policeman doth cry,
she knew that this orderly person was high;
so up to the main nurses’ station she flew,
with the cart full of drugs, and old Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, she saw on the tiles
a registered Sister, all laughing and smiles;
as the nurse saw her eyes, which were happy and odd
she turned to old Nicholas, gave him a nod.

He was dressed all in white, from his head to his feet,
but his clothes were all tarnished with gunk from the street;
a big bag of drugs he had flung on his back,
he had Methadone, steroids, Rohypnol and Crack.

His eyes-how they twinkled, his pupils so bright,
as he walked down the ward he was high as a kite;
for with each plastic packet he opened, he sniffed,
as he stopped at each bed and gave each one a gift.

The stump of a roach he held tight in his teeth,
and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
he had a lined face and a necklace with bling,
a big Rolex watch and a huge diamond ring!

He was street-wise and hip and he wasn’t a fool,
and she laughed when she saw him, and thought he was cool;
a wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
and another poor patient was smiling in bed.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
and filled all the IV’s, then turned with a jerk;
then lighting a joint of Columbian heads,
he blew out the smoke over each of the beds!

He sprang to his cart, to the nurse gave a smile,
“They’ll be fine, and each one will come down in a while.”
But she heard him exclaim, ‘ere he ran out of sight:
"Happy Christmas to all, have at least ONE good-night!"

more of my CHRISTMAS POEMS here