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About This Poem
The Waking up of the Extremis - Act One
first draft
Cast of characters:
Atharia – a female hospital attendant
Voice – a voice, an observer
The doctor – a male doctoctor
mortuary attendant
Grave diggers
Patients…
Setting: Hospital, Graveyard
ACT ONE
Scene One
[at a grave site in the night
owls hooting
gravediggers quietly
head to the site]
[Voice]:Silence encompasses the graveyard –
That’s what you think…
When the night comes the grave diggers arise.
Don’t be so shocked…
Yes, the loved one you thought you’d buried has been displaced, totally.
Body burnt; another one takes his place.
Men digging the grave, removing coffins, men stripping
the dead of their clothes, pressing clothes, packaging
clothes, men piling up
dead bodies into a pit, burning dead bodies
[scene fades]
Scene two
[at the hospital
Patients lining up,
hospital attendant checking to see who has insurance. Turning
away those who don’t.
Atharia walking through the hospital.]
[Atharia]:call it TRIAGE –
the process of deciding who should be saved first:
Simply put – no money, no service. Deal.
Rundown hospitals the shame of our nation. But whose shame I ask?
Not of the ones whose sneeze books them a
private room in a private hospital.
Not of the ones who fly abroad for ‘checkup’ just because.
And certainly not of the ones whose companies guarantee bills are paid – the amount is irrelevant.
But shame of the poor man and his spawns.
Shame of the pride filled doctors and discourteous nurses who turn away
the patients they took an oath to serve and save.
[Nurse hands clipboard to doctor]
[Doctor]:Ah ah, not my shame.
Shame of the corrupt business man who values money and snuffs out life of
the unsuspecting
Shame of the powerful politician who colludes with port officials to check in
containers filled with counterfeit drugs.
Shame of the government chemist who gives a clean bill of health to
suspicious drugs and medical equipments.
Shame of a government which fails to protect its citizens
because let’s face it the poor man has no voice.
[Doctor enters theatre bangs the door shut]
[Patients]:Who will cry out for the downtrodden woman who dies
giving life?
Who will heed the mourning of the once vibrant
man now ravaged with HIV?
Definitely not them!
Triage is a game
only the rich
can win.
[theatre light blinks red; eerie music heard]
ACT TWO
Scene one
[Song of mourning.
Doctor seen harvesting organs from deceased, organs
put in freezer, body stiched up]
[Voice]:Oh yes, it’s a booming business.
Doctors collude with workers to fleece the dead of their
inward body parts
Ha ha ha! Your fear of the dead makes it so easy!
It’s not your fault.
A kidney there, a heart here – vanished, body quickly stitched up.
Dead bodies piled up in the morgue, but for extra cash, then
Your dearly departed will be handled with care.
And you’ll be too pleased to part
with more cash – little
do you know but –
he’s not whole!
It’s not like you’re gonna check him, now is it?
[Sounds of mourning get louder as doctor breaks the news.
Atharia leads the deceased family to the morgue.]
[Atharia]: Death oh death
The stealer of souls
The equalizer of men.
Who spread your wings and gave you wind to fly?
Who sharpened your claws and put
you above all else?
The infant boy you have swallowed alongside the toothless man.
The vibrant girl, you did not give a chance
to say a word.
Look at the poor woman crying for her only child,
don’t you feel shame when you destroy their worlds?
[Atharia stops in her tracks as reach a door
labeled abortion clinic.
Doctor opens door to admit a woman.]
[Doctor]:Don’t dare say a word – pro life; pro choice
Who am I to choose?
What do I know of the goings on in a woman’s head?
Who am I to tell a teenage girl to put her life on hold because
of a mistake she made?
Or tell her to live on hope when the father bailed out
and her family are barely surviving?
Life begins at conception, you say.
But what kind of life is it?
See, the woman who was raped by a gang. Look her
in the eyes and tell her that life is
a gift.
Why do you stutter?
Provide a solution or get out of my way.
[Doctor bangs door shut]
Continued in Act Three……
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