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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>If bodies of their own heal</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">I</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Two scores of ripe years ere, remember I, <br>At shower, shaving mirror, shaping hair, <br>Bending elbow when turns annoying nigh, <br>I wonder when, how my hurt hushed in there<br>Unknown to me, as seasons oft set in<br>Early or late, till one day forced are we <br>To tune into the change though not keen; <br>More than the dull pain, hurt irritates me.<br> <br>The medic I consult, cool as was I, <br>But more sure, call it a tennis elbow, <br>Me in protest, not having played the game, </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Laugh it off a little respectfully, <br>The doc unmoved as e'er, letting me know: <br>Oh, just the same, it is no more than name.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">  II</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Prescribes he a pain pacifying drug, <br>Not kind to drugging messengers of pain, <br>Being a believer in roots, I shrug, <br>The pain, not being un-seasonal rain, <br>Persists gaining a slow intensity, <br>The devilish doc feels vindicated, <br>Looking kind, yet stern-eyed, he nods at me; <br>Oh, counsel my own leaves me defeated! </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">O'er-ruled, a rebel on knees, and elbowed, <br>Bowed to submission, loosening left sleeve, <br>I look as if explanation was owed, </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">He looks up a stern verdict to give: <br>There's no escape, man reaps whatso is sowed, <br>Whatso the doc decides you shall receive.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">  III</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Nursing help called in, I'm led like a cow<br>To in-house slaughter house, or so I thought, <br>The wise me cursing the rebellious me now, <br>I follow in worse apprehensions caught, <br>O for ultra thermal waves— half an hour; <br>Feeling relieved thence: it could have been worse, <br>But rather than relieving pain, if e'er, <br>The mute machine taxes my time and purse.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The pain persisting still, it was my time<br>To look quizzical at the nurse, and vexed, <br>But docs have reasons if or not they rhyme, </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">‘I must take a good look within'; an X-<br>Ray ordered, my disorder looked to me like crime, <br>I was worried, being treated by cracks.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">  IV</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">‘No sign of malign growth', the doc declared<br>Swanning into the cubic I wait in, <br>No uncertain hints that he favoured, cared, <br>That he was kind, considerate within, <br>His stern exterior notwithstanding; <br>‘However', his looks darkening somewhat, <br>‘You'll see on left a soft growth in a ring, <br>‘I've reason enough to suspect a lot'.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">I see not else but my upper-arm bone, <br>Humerus as is called, but I'd like to<br>Say: funny, the fun having too far gone; </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">But felt, silence is oft no mean virtue<br>To one on a receiving stick unknown, <br>And looked at him to hearken wise words due.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">  V</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">‘We'll need further tests of course to be sure, <br>‘But what we see seems serious I feel', <br>I knew, grin or growl, I aught endure, <br>But was unsure which the greater evil<br>Was: ailment or treatment of my elbow! <br>A picture of an endless dark tunnel<br>Flashes in mind; it looks dark, no less dull, <br>Oblivious of pain, something churns in my maw.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">A large dose of antibiotics to start with, <br>The elbow under his eagle-sharp eyes, <br>Says he tinkering with my bone like a blacksmith.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The swelling, now enlarged still more, there lies<br>With unknown liquid, as if a close kith, <br>And treatment flounders on guess and surmise.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">  VI</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">‘We'll aspirate the liquid', he thence said, <br>‘If liquid goes, I hope the swelling too'; <br>Skin dulled he worked, a large needle in aid, <br>And felt as if Everest was dwarfed a new.<br>In a few days the liquid returns to the base, <br>Returns the swelling too as it ere was, <br>On top, no respite from hospital chase, <br>I wonder if my karmas have outweighed the cause. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">All through, pain was a minor irritant, <br>And I lived normal life as did before, <br>If only I had avoided it all.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Despite the doctors and drugs, the tenant<br>Of my elbow stayed put, cosy indoor—<br>Sure, her comfortable, and cyst-made wall! </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">  VII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The doctor looking graver than e'er ere, <br>His confidence still deserting ne'er once, <br>Swirls his chair round, through large window to stare, <br>As if to get inspired by Providence; <br>More dumb than mute, I curse my accursed fate.<br>‘I'm very happy it is your left hand', <br>He declares; my mouth wide op— ajar gate, <br>‘We can amputate it if we can't mend'! </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">‘The treatment, though irritating and long, <br>‘T.B. these days can be easily cured, <br>‘Soft tissue or bone; cancer I hope not it is'. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">His tone easy, that of a movie song, <br>He consoles me; and sure I was assured, <br>There comes cost estimate with studied ease.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">  VIII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Not getting his wisdom home, I ask him: <br>‘Please, let me know it all, doctor to patient', <br>And plead like guilty man, now penitent.<br>It proved a nightmare, what ere was a funny dream.<br>‘I suspect a grave local infection, <br>‘A cyst has enveloped it like a fort, <br>‘Look at the Nature's marvellous action—<br>‘A compromise settlement out-of-court'! </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Cutting short, visiting the pain again, <br>A surgery sequestered all the cyst and roots, <br>The biopsy test still gave him no clue.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Not all in vain of course, gone was the pain, <br>But left I was to reap the bitter fruits—<br>A safeguard anti-Cox treatment still due! </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">I wonder, knowledge should help or hinder, <br>Or just burn bright like useless dry tinder. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">  IX</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">I should much feel, he that treated me knew<br>The mystery that human body is, <br>That it takes two hundred muscles, not few, <br>To take but one baby step with such ease; <br>The length of body's blood vessels' so huge, <br>Two trips around the earth can well be laid; <br>That, cells die in a million deluge<br>Each minute, while more patriots are made.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Yet, we know much less of the universe<br>That lies in each body than outer space, <br>And of an ailing body still much worse; </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Man's ignorance has just not kept pace.<br>Socrates knew: he ‘lone doth truly know<br>That knows: lo, knowledge known is still too low. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">If better ‘tis to let sleeping dogs lie, <br>Should we not let bodies heal—of drugs dry? <br> </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=558478" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">_________________________________________ ____________<br>This is a sequence of nine sonnets constituting one single<br>poem. But the last line of the preceding sonnet is not the first<br>line of the next sonnet; nor is the first line of the first sonnet, <br>the last line of the last sonnet; as is often the case. The first <br>seven sonnets are composed of an octave each, followed by a <br>pair of two terza rima, that can be viewed as a sestet. The last <br>two sonnets (the eighth and the ninth) have an extra couplet <br>concluding the underlying feelings. <br>_____________________________________________ ________________ <br> - Sonnets | 03.11.12 |</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Aniruddha+Pathak">Aniruddha Pathak</a></strong></div>