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ONCE A PATIENT… - Sagar Mal Gupta (India)

 


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.

 

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