Tuesday 22 March 2016

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


1 comment:

  1. Cathy, I hope that visit to a neurologist was a long time ago and that you are well. I hate that scrapy thing on the soles of the feet!

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