Oath
By Noo
- 945 reads
“These helping hands aren’t at your aid” – Zeal and Ardor
*
Doctor
I start with hypothesis
Of where damage lies –
Brain in the white man? Heart in the black?
The lucky six hundred, with their
Low intelligence,
Poor conditions,
Huge desire,
Lack of control.
Can I help they can’t read
The small print?
Consent and secrecy
Are moveable feasts,
So where, when you think about it, is
The deceit?
A small untruth at most -
Metal therapy of bismuth,
Arsenic and mercury.
Toxic, useless.
Penicillin could cure them,
But we don’t want them better.
They are walking cadavers,
Guaranteed places
At the autopsy table –
Spoiled meat to examine,
Subject, not patient.
This is all for y/our good,
I promise, I promise.
*
I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability, this covenant.
*
Disease
I, the great imitator,
Am a lover of numbers –
128 men,
40 of their wives,
Riddled with pox,
Dying or dead.
19 children, born with my taint.
I always start small –
One, painless chancre,
Then a rash,
Then, no symptoms at all.
Primary, secondary, latent.
Tertiary is trickier,
But it shouldn’t
Have to go that far.
These things aren’t black and white.
I’m firm, but fair.
I destroy all – of that,
I promise, I promise.
*
I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures.
*
Nurse
Step right up, it’s your
“last chance for special free treatment” -
Free medical examinations,
Free rides to hospital,
Free meals,
Free funerals.
Don’t say we don’t treat you,
Be grateful,
All in this beautiful country
Of ours is for free.
Take your pink medicine,
Get your special shot here,
It won’t hurt a bit.
I promise, I promise.
*
I will remember there is art to medicine as well as science.
*
Man
In the cool mornings,
October, when the cotton’s picked,
I look at the land.
I watch it for signs,
And sometimes it sings to me.
Of juniper, white oak,
Pecan and ash,
Hackberry, Crabapple,
Strange fruit.
I have bad blood – they told me,
But they’ll cure me, they’ve promised.
For now then, I’ll keep it,
Pass it to nobody,
The one thing I own.
Mine to give or retain,
I promise, I promise.
*
Most especially, must I tread with care in matters of life and death.
*
Woman
He has bad blood – they told him.
But they’ll cure him, they’ve promised.
As sure as green turns to orange
On the trees in fall,
As sure as sap rises in springtime,
As sure as the world keeps on turning,
A promise is a promise.
For now then, he’ll keep it,
Like the baby inside me,
Secret, safe, mine.
I’ll never hurt you child,
I promise, I promise.
*
I will remember that I remain a member of society.
*
Child
When the weather is warm,
The cotton is clouds descended,
Quiver clouds of dragonflies,
Weevils and bees.
The sun is hot on my back
But the wind vows
Evening will be cool,
Will bring rain.
My daddy tells me the wind can lie.
Untrustworthy, ornery wind.
In the future, I will leave here.
In the future, I will stay.
Here in the fields,
Your faithful, loving son.
*
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life, respected while I live and remembered with affection.
*
(The lines in italics throughout are from a modern version of the Hippocratic Oath.)
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Comments
The shocking truth seems such
The shocking truth seems such a tucked away piece of history. Your use of different voices gives depth of detail - that you mange to tell it in a few stanzas demonstrated the power of the the form and your skill.
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This piece needs wider
This piece needs wider readership it's an important story that I knew nothing of until this piece. It's our facebook and twitter pick of the day.
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I didn't know anything about
I didn't know anything about it either, so thank you Philip for higlighting it, and thank you noo, for this - what an absolute tragedy for those poor people, and a shameful episode in medical history. Congratulations on your very well deserved golden cherries
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If this is true it seems odd they would do that
This disease has been around for centuries and the progression is well documented. They would gain nothing other than satisfying a macarbre curiosity ,of course, at the cost of "Negro" lives. I'm not even sure the Nazi doctors would have bothered doing this to Jewish prisoners. Certainly this level of cruelty is in the same ball-park
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Poem of the Week
A wonderfully written and important piece that deserves as wide an audience as possible. This is our Poem of the Week. Congratulations!
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