ONCE A PATIENT…
- Sagar Mal Gupta (India)
A
gardener very effectively prunes
trees,
plants and creepers.
They
too very obligingly bend their body
and
respond by double the growth of
leaves,
flowers and fruits.
You
too go to a life-gardener
with
the motto
once
a patient never a patient.
You
hesitatingly allow yourself
to
undergo the life gardener’s cut of
knife
and scalpel.
The
excruciating pain follows
and
follow a plethora of
injections
and medicines.
The
stomach stages a revolt
The
soothing touch to the stomach
causes
guts to play truant
like
the hive of bees.
One
disease follows another
like
Banquo’s ghost’s trail of
inheritors
in Macbeth.
After
frequency of visits
You
console yourself by saying
Once
a patient is always a patient.
****