MIDDLE 10. Doctor Death

10. DOCTOR DEATH

(2006)

I call him Doctor Death

Because he’s the one

Who delivers

The bad news.

Summoned to meet him

Make my way to his office

Dreading what I will hear

I remember schoolboy  self

Trembling, treading the path

To the headmaster’s office

Knowing I will be caned,

Helpless, frightened,

Something horrible will happen

And I cannot change it.

“Doctor Death”

Rather unfair

He brings skill, experience and compassion

To the fight to save Clara’s life.

And when there’s a setback

That trashes our bright hopes

He has the decency

To tell us straight.

Still, to me

Across the desk from him

Filled with dread

He’s Doctor Death.

8 February 2013

MIDDLE 9. Body Bag

9. BODY BAG

My turn in the cancer ward

this afternoon,

Be with Clara

While Jill has a break.

Commute to hospital

Take lift to Clara’s floor.

Lift doors open, reveal

Grisly sight:

Attendants wheeling trolley,

A body, in a body bag.

Lightning bolt shock

Fear

Clara!

No, no, no!

I hasten down the corridor

To Clara’s room.

There, sitting up in bed, smiling,

Is Clara.

Hi Dad!

Hi Clara!

So, not this time.

Today

Someone else’s child is in the body bag

Today

Someone else gets the knife in the heart.

12 May 2012

MIDDLE 8. Still Life

8. STILL LIFE

Night in the hospital

Walking from Clara’s room

To the kitchen

I see them,

She tall, slim, mournful,

Standing head bowed,

Cradling baby

Beside them IV drip feed machine

Upright, wheeled stand,

Steady, insistent pulse beat.

I stare a moment, unnoticed

See a picture

Beauty and Sorrow.

Mother, weary, willing her child to live.

If she can just love her enough,

Surely she will live.

Baby quiet,

Weak from sickness and chemo.

They stand solitary, still,

Deep in the silent night,

Madonna, child and chemo drip.

(2010)