.
Kill or Cure?
“The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient
while nature cures the disease.” —Voltaire
.
Possible Side Effects:
May cause lacerations to lobes of the brain
__Or clusters of pustular zits,
Neuritis, cystitis, abdominal pain
__And gaseous doses of squits.
Stop taking if aching and waking at night
__With loss of libido and vision.
If scythed by the reaper and bathed in white light
__Seek rapid advice from physician.
.
Possible Remedy:
Oh, what a conundrum when feeling quite sick—
__The pharmacological curse
Of curative lures—could the chemist’s new trick
__Conceivably leave you much worse?
Weigh up the dilemmas and dangers you face
__Before getting ready to pay—
Alarm at the harm that each pill may encase
__Could chase every ailment away.
.
.
Which Doctor?
“Attention to health is life’s greatest
hindrance.” —Plato
I have a gnawing in my heart
__That niggles noon till night.
All rhyme and reason fall apart—
__My rhythm isn’t right.
I cannot fight this nagging blight
__With symptoms so perverse
That when I seek a remedy
__My malady gets worse.
I have a harpy in my head
__Whose carping pains my brain
With shrieks to wake the very dead
__And drive the live insane.
If only experts could explain
__The causes of my curse—
But when I seek a remedy
__My malady gets worse.
I have a shiver neath my skin
__That quivers through my bones.
I have an itchy twitch within
__My optic rods and cones.
A specialist might probe these zones
__Assisted by a nurse—
But when I seek a remedy
__My malady gets worse.
I have a sibylline alarm
__That echoes in my ears,
Alerting me to skirt the charm
__Of snowy-coated seers
With stethoscopes and fierce ideas
__To which I am averse—
For when I seek a remedy
__My malady gets worse.
My stressful quest to find the best
__Physician blessed with skill
May lay my sickly soul to rest
__With pills for every ill
On which I’ll choke (my cure could kill
__Then toss me in a hearse)
Cuz when I seek a remedy
__My malady gets worse.
I’m loath to leave my grieving kin
__An epitaph this terse:
Her fervid search for remedies
__Made maladies much worse.
first published in Snakeskin
.
.
Susan Jarvis Bryant is a poet originally from the U.K., now living on the Gulf Coast of Texas.
Susan:
“I feel your pain” is usually a cliche, but you write so brilliantly that I really do feel your pain. And pray for you each day. Thank you for sharing this intensely personal and emotional work, and God bless you.
Russel, thank you so much for this lovely comment, especially your care. I will say that although the poems are based on my firsthand experience of the healthcare system (sadly, I’m not too impressed), I laughed as I wrote every line of these two poems knowing that laughter is the best medicine for any and every ailment. I hope you giggled… just a bit.
Susan, reading the many ‘truths’ in these 3 pieces has actually made me nauseous! 🙁 Over the past few decades, I’ve experienced them all. 4 out of every 10 medicines I’ve been told to ‘TRY’ have done more harm than good. I believe I know what prompted you to post these, and they each are a superb reflection of what the majority of medical and pharmaceutical fields have succumbed to – $$$$$$$$$$. As always, great work.
Mark, thank you so much for your comment and your encouragement. Sadly, your story is a familiar one. Often treatment of symptoms goes on for years before a push to find the underlying cause. For the most part, medicine is all about money – the Hippocratic oath and fistfuls of cash are a bad combo.
When I see pharmacological advertisements on tv commercials, I shudder at the side effects they state that are vastly deleterious far beyond the curative effects that are purported to be a cure for the particular diagnosis. Then they tell us to stop taking it if allergic to it. How does one know they might be allergic to the medication unless they try it. That is likely a safe bet, since the patient may be dead from the allergy or side effects and will by default stop taking it.
I worry about your health since seeing a reference to it on the SCP newsletter. I pray you will find a way to overcome your malady (ies). Whatever your issues, I assure you your brilliantly adept mind continues to leave us in awe.
Roy, I really appreciate your comment. Thank you very much for your knowledge and for your continued support – it means a lot. When I first came to Texas, I used to laugh at the endless stream of side effects on the TV screen – hive medicine causing hives, anti-depressants causing suicide etc. etc. I’m not laughing now. I am thoroughly disgusted and seething with anger at Big Pharma’s role in the decline of our health as a nation.
Like all great artists, you’ve found a way to transmute pain into beauty. My heart goes out to you as I laugh through these, Susan.
I love in the in-line and your mid- line rhymes that you mix into your poems. It makes them fun to read out loud. Keep’em coming!
Michael, thank you very much for your lovely comment – I intend to keep ’em coming for as long as I can!
ABB, thank you so much for this heartwarming, spirit-lifting comment… and it pleases me no end to know my words made you laugh. Writing always brings me joy, whatever the subject, and I’m thrilled that joy is contagious.
Susan, these absolutely delightful poems remind me of Hilaire Belloc — the wry humor, the slick meter, the perfect and ingenious rhymes. They are funny, but with the serious edge that makes them more than simple jokes.
We all need to develop a much more skeptical and distrusting attitude towards pharmaceuticals.
As an admirer of Hilaire Belloc, what a huge compliment – thank you, Joe. You are spot on in your assessment of the significance of the message behind the humor. I believe we should all be cautious when it comes to medication – a bit of simple research could save an awful lot of pain and heartache. I know that from personal experience.
Susan, A little bit of everything in your poem, like preparing a meal and finding the oven does not work. I honestly enjoyed your poem. Happy New Year and health and joy go together like healing and time.
A very happy and healthy New Year to you too, Norma. I especially like your health and joy and healing and time observations. You’re so right. Thank you!
Trust the sibyl and let verse be your medicine for a healthy new year. Liked those laughing labels in particular.
Thank you, Margaret. Here’s wishing you a healthy and happy 2025.
Leave it to you, Susan, to find humor even in suffering and frustration. Prayers are ascending for your health.
Cynthia, thank you so very much for your prayers and your continued support of my poetry. You never fail to cheer and encourage me.
Susan,
You once again have found a way,
through beautiful, humorous verse
to let us see some truth today
and shed light on the curse
that forms when healthcare becomes lost,
winds up as industry,
and rewards profits, at the cost
of those in dire need.
I thank you, ma’am, straight from my heart,
for sharing what you feel;
in no small way, you’ve played a part
in helping me to heal.
/As always, your work is amazing.
Thank you, DG/
Dusty, what an absolute treat of a poetic comment. I love it!! Thank you very much indeed! I am in awe of ‘White Wolf, Black Wolf: A Cherokee Story’ and your sonnet corona, which inspired me to try one myself. Happy New Year to you!
Cheers Susan, Gesundheit, to your health in 2025. These poems are all very entertaining. My personal experience has been that the more I stay away from doctors, the healthier I become. I have a few good friends who are doctors and nurses and I don’t hold it against them, but I make a point of never discussing anything health related with them.
Yael, thank you very much indeed. Here’s to a healthy 2025! After all the world has learned about Big Pharma, surely the same mistakes won’t be made again… or will they? I have friends in the medical field on their fifth Covid jab. I too have taken a vow of silence in their company.
I once took a medicine, which in addition to all demonstrated, possible, recorded and suspected side-effects, said I couldn’t eat grapefruits! Go figure!
Then again, the second time I had malaria, knowing the symptoms I went directly to a pharmacist for a medicine that if you took daily, as a prophylactic, for specific varieties of malaria, had far-reaching side-effects. Catch-22.
Yep, some of these medicines (and medics) do instill anxiety. Thanks for your humorous and cautionary takes.
Paul, thank you. I agree with you. Medicine is a minefield. I am assuming the warning against grapefruit relates to blood pressure medicine. Grapefruit brings blood pressure down naturally… perhaps that little secret might interfere with sales… or not. God knows.
Incredible poetry, Susan, which you’ve practically drawn from a vein. It is quite brave of you to put your medical vulnerability out there along with your dismay at the medical system, which is as neglectful and corrupt as one would expect any confederation of professionals to be. How is good medicine to be provided when there are so many considerations of political power, economic incentive, narcissism and varying levels of skill and corruption afoot? You explore this unfortunate situation with fierce poetic skill. One will be hard-pressed to ever find internal rhyme used to such strong effect. I’m particularly taken with the lines “My stressful quest to find the best/Physician blessed with skill…” which is downright chewy with internal rhyme and assonance. There’s a sing-song quality to the form you have selected in the second poem which is, I think, ESSENTIAL to the message – one which is a uniquely Bryantesque depiction of truth masquerading as satire. This is something you do in much of your poetry to great effect. You know exactly which tone and how to present it in the right form. This is not a skill all poets possess but you are unfailingly good at it. Here, for example, longer lines would have made the piece too heavy to enjoy and the effectiveness of your masking truth as satire might have been diminished.
A special shout-out for your hilarious two-edged title of “Which Doctor.”
And continued prayers that your recovery and healing proceed well — and that the medical care you receive is good, proper, effective and truly compassionate. You deserve no less.
Brian, I am extremely grateful for your close reading of my poems. You always appreciate the craftmanship as well as the message. Thank you very much indeed.
Your question of “How is good medicine to be provided when there are so many considerations of political power, economic incentive, narcissism and varying levels of skill and corruption afoot?” is a dilemma all who no longer trust the medical industry following the Covid atrocities are facing these days. I know my skepticism has saved me from extra pain and medical bills during my current battle with health and would urge everyone to check out all prescribed medication before taking it. I was prescribed impetigo cream for a severe eye infection – thank goodness I didn’t rub that in my ailing eye.
We lost our dear little puppy, Lucas, last year. The vet overdosed him on a drug that should only have been used on adult dogs. The only reason I’m mentioning this is because I don’t want this to happen to others. My poems are about remaining cautious and skeptical. Experts in their field get it right, but they also get it wrong… a lot. We need to proceed with caution in a world doesn’t always have the people’s interests at heart. Brian, thank you for asking a question all of us need to ask – a question that prompted me to tell my story in the hope of helping others.
Susan, your poem is hilarious, beautifully written and damning to the recent rise of experts and expert-worshippers.
Somehow, the real people have handed over all power to government approved experts and their toadies. Now, America has the lowest life expectancy of any developed nation. We have traded years of life for that warm fuzzy feeling we get by thinking that those who profit from their often misplaced trust and pomposity actually care about us… silly us. We are losing our culture, our families and our own lives because of that misplaced trust. And… it’s even worse than that… because we still trust them.
Thank you Susan for pounding these pompous jobsworths at every opportunity!
“Niggles” was a new word for me to look up. I like those internal rhymes and near-rhymes: “harpy” and “carping”; “shiver” and “quivers”; and “quest” with “blessed”. I hope that you’re able to find more natural remedies for what ails you. I’ve always had a keen interest and strong belief in herbs, vitamins and minerals, etc.; and of course, there’s the nutritional aspect.
Cheryl, thank you so much for your appreciation of my quirky poetry. I’m with you all the way on the natural remedies route.
These were very fun to read (as expected) and very hard-hitting. I’m hopeful that we’re finally waking up as a nation to how the pharmaceutical industry works. We’ve become very good at producing obese people with chronic diseases who will need to consume Big Pharma products forever. The media and the bureaucrats in Washington are never going to push for change but there are some renegades (such as yourself) who are getting the message out and it appears to be connecting with young people. If they turn on Big Pharma in sufficient numbers, we might have a chance. Keep fighting the good fight!
Warren, I thoroughly appreciate your insightful comment. A couple of years back I found out that a lot of food produced for the American consumer is bursting with extra sugar together with ingredients that are illegal in the U.K. and Europe. Tomato ketchup (for example) has a USA only ingredients list. Sickened by this, I refuse to buy the poisons sold in our local stores and make my own nutritious and natural condiments from scratch. Knowledge really is power. Warren – thank you. I intend to continue to fight the good fight in the only way I know how. I’m thrilled to have you on my side.