This night nurse is different.
She walks into my room and does not turn the light on.
She thinks I am sleeping.
I have just barely opened my left eye,
am looking through the slightest slit,
as moonlight exposes the room
for what it really is — a collection
of surfaces; lines and planes, mostly.
The night nurse puts a foot up on the radiator
and braces her clipboard on her knee
as she appears to take down a few notes.
I imagine she is working on a sonnet,
and that her ankle looks like polished walnut.
You imagine she is working on a crossword,
and that her feet are killing her.
The slightest slit is like an old gate
at a Japanese tea garden at night,
in the rain, that is supposed to be closed,
that is supposed to be locked.
“Someone has locked up poorly,” you’d say.
“Incorrectly.” But no one has asked you.
This poem originally appeared in the Date Poetry Magazine.
Analysis:
In Night Nurse, Craig portrays the speaker as an observant patient who particularly admires a nurse that checks up on him during the night. Although she simply comes in, puts her foot on a radiator, and jots down conventional nurse notes, he imagines her working on an elaborate sonnet or a difficult crossword puzzle. Through this, the patients respect and admiration for this particular nurse is elaborately conveyed. He is exposed to numerous different nurses in this hospital setting, yet for some reason is intrigued by this one woman and Craig portrays his interest through a description of his imagination. The simple statement "this night nurse is different" is significant, because it opens the poem with an introduction to the uniqueness of this particular nurse. Craig also indirectly portrays the loneliness that comes from a stay in the hospital, along with the overall boring setting of his room. He does this by taking such a normal visit by a nurse and creating this fantasy using his imagination. This shows that there is obviously not much else on his mind and small details have been amplified in an almost observant form of his own personal entertainment. Craig effectively takes the central focus of the poem (the nurse) and uses detailed imagery in order to portray the speakers perception of her.
