The Elephant in the Room

Nobody likes to visit consultants, hospitals, surgeries, dentists etc

There is a medic speak that escapes me and leaves me feeling disempowered

So if I have to, and I can do it,  I take  a pen and write a poem or piece of fiction about it.

At least it distracts and even gives me a voice where I feel I have none.

Elizabeth Bishop has a great poem called In The Waiting Room.

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/waiting-room

Here's a short one from me about a visit to a neurologist.

The Nerve Man

You talk of elephants in the room, emperor’s clothes,

riddles that you wield with your tongue

as you apply medieval instruments

to her hands and feet,

testing her perception of heat and cold,

taxing her brain with multiplications and subtractions,

divisions and word sequences repeated

backwards, forwards and ten minutes later.

You are bearded and only slightly stooped

but you have seen it all and bring all

the weight of your crude weaponry to bear.

The compass of your tools.

The foolproof mastery of your trade.

And with a final scrape of metal

on the soles of her feet

You tell her

It is all in her mind.

Copyright with Cathy Leonard 2016