CANCER

As a nurse I work in palliative care, recently I saw on the news how a whale calf that had been abandoned was euthanised & it led me to write the following poem. I was also inspired by one of my favourite poems: 'the love song of J. Alfred Prufrock' by T.S. Eliot.

So tell me doctor will this be it?
Is that what you mean by palliation?
Have the death cells breached my bones?
Is there no hope with an operation?

Just yesterday I heard the news
They saw fit to euthanize a whale calf
Abandoned by its mother off the coast
It had lost its rightful path

In the room the nurses come and go
Talking of how the flowers grow

Do you not see me anymore?
Do you not think to knock at the door?
Before entering like a wild weir
To plunge in my meds & clean up my rear

Have I become what I fear?
Have I begun to disappear?

It’s spring outside, September’s come
But to winter I have succumbed
Is all I possess here in this room?
My trifle treasures now my trusty tomb

In the room the nurses come and go
Talking of how the flowers grow

Just yesterday I heard the news
They euthanized a whale calf lost at sea
They saw its pain, its hopeless state
But why, oh why don’t they see me?