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Patient - 3/30/05 2005 Archive - 2006 Archive

A life has been divided,
torn in two by diagnosis.
Sympathy and empathy had their day;
now it has become personal.

Shuttled from office to office
examined from orifice to orifice,
privacy and decorum have
given way to the need to know.

Percentages and treatment courses
are bantered about like shuttlecocks;
organs and body parts become
disposable tools of the trade.

Day of intersection approaches,
surgical steel meets human flesh;
medical expertise addresses spreading disease
prayer for healing faces here and now.

Best laid plans and ducks in a row
faith and hope are out of the barn
feeling the squeeze this race brings
oxygen mask of trust drops from above.

Show us how to hold the pace
waiting, wondering, squeezing grace
letting go to come what may
mercy greets another day.

[for Janis Myers]

© 2005 Todd Jenkins