PERSON Poetry Reading: Last Doctor’s Visit, by Joanne Mitchell

Performed by Val Cole

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POEM:

LAST DOCTOR’S VISIT
Every visit started with the check-in process
Age, name, doctor, and time of appointment
Have a seat
Elinor says; silly girl I’m in a wheel chair I’m
Already sitting.
Fill out this form
We know the drill
All these years it hasn’t changed
I fill out the form
We wait.
Last night Jennie and i made Greek soup
Which is lemon, eggs, chicken, rice and celery
For some reason I brought a large container
Of the soup for elinor to take home
To eat during the week
She was hungry
Needed something to eat
I gave her the cold soup
She loved it
Jennie an I were happy
She loved it
So sad she ate as if she hadn’t eaten for days.
They called her name
To get her blood drawn
Four attempts to get into her vein
Screaming with each try
The nurse was unable to take
Blood from her port
Finally, they stopped trying
Doctor was ready to see her
Dr. Citron hugged her
He sat, she was in a wheel chair
And didn’t need to sit.
A wheel chair
She hated the wheel chair.
He typed in all her complaints
Looked away from the computer
Moved his chair very close to Elinor
So close their noses were apart
By a few hairs
Elinor, the pain you feel is the cancer progressing
It’s the same cancer that started us
On our journey thirty-four years ago
If the pain is more than you want to tolerate
Take another pill
They are for you to take for pain
Do not worry about how many you take.
You know Elinor, there is no more I can do
She looked into his eyes
Not a word
He said no more blood test
No more ports
No more infusion of iron
“No more anything”,
She said
I know every time I came
There was something, new drug
New procedure
Not this time.
Elinor wanted Dr. Citron
To give her what she wanted
To live
That simple.
They hugged
You know Elinor, you have been with me for thirty-four years
And you always wore black
No, sometimes I wore dark brown.
We laughed
They hugged once again
And he left.
Us alone in the examining room
We gathered our stuff
Walked out without checking out
They will call if we owe them money.
One request
Let’s have lunch
So we ate
Our last lunch
At the hospital lunch room.

Author: poetryfest

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