Hospital Poetry: Hayley's Comet

“What’s happening?”
“Hayley went off like a Christmas cracker.”
Eyes agog. Silence; a blank pop in the hubbub of cheery chatter, before the inevitable –
“A what?”
“You know – a Christmas cracker. Went off. Had another seizure!” Impatient patient stamp of the slipper.
“Ohhhh I get it. Uh… festive.”
“Ha ha ha. Ho ho ho. Very merry.”
Dasher and Prancer sly eyes and Vixen smiles.
I tug uncomfortably on my NG. Bad taste bubbling into every periphery.