Heal Thyself O Patient - II
Proffered no reprieve, led was I like cow
By clinic’s nurse to slaughterhouse, I thought,
The wise me cursing the rebel me now,
All mute, betwixt devil-pain-and-doc caught.
Take thermal waves— weighty words waft from her,
And every day— we can’t let it get worse—
She, pontiff like, her wisdom did aver,
I learn to live with pain, whilst me to curse.
Oh for a thankless lingering long time,
Yet, pain nor problem wanes both wind their way,
Docs have reasons that to them only rhyme:
I need take a good look at your x ray,
I feel as if caught in a lifetime’s crime—
Caught red-handed with a bleeding knife, say.
Yea, caught red-handed, knife still bleeding red,
No sign of malignant growth, he declared
As he scanned my x ray, felt elated
To hint that he favoured me, for, he glared
At me to pose: how kind heart he’s within,
Then, his eyes enlarging more than somewhat,
Said, see that growth on left hidden therein,
I sure have reasons to doubt it than naught.
But doc, I see naught else but fore-arm bone,
Humerus bone as you call, but I view
It as rather funny, fun too far gone,
But felt, silence is patients’ sole virtue,
On wrong side of stick— hurting bone my own,
Wordless I weighed for his weighty clue.
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Crown of sonnets | 03.11.2012, revised July 2023|
Poet’s note: Here are sonnets III and IV of a sequel of ten sonnets constituting one single poem called a crown of sonnets. The last line of the preceding sonnet is repeated as the first line of the next sonnet, but not verbatim; nor is the first line of the first sonnet is repeated as the last line of the tenth as is. The sestets are either a quartet and a couplet or two sets of three-lined Terza Rima. Hurt is the place from where light enters, and it did, I realized after my long-drawn medical treatment.
Copyright ©
Aniruddha Pathak
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