Rules of Next Time

For on her head she wore a crown

Placed by the corona

In the sky

Replaced crowns

She’d grown from birth

Ironic that conditions

Of the moon and the stars

Allowed the sun to get in on the action too

Can you imagine 15

With the wrath of the sun

Breathing down the nape of your neck

And hyphae ruling a kingdom

Rooted in bone

Your bone

That had to wander to the limits

Of human compassion 

Shit I did to

How else could they cope 

But to focus on the self

Certain it will always elude

Rather than a grim prognosis

Set in stone

So instead maybe she yearned

To be among the celestial bodies

That handed her a fate

That walked like death

That laid her life in hands

That failed to empathize

That failed to act

That failed to advocate

Maybe she wasn’t my patient

“This will be the most time you have”

But I could empathize

“To spend with patients during your career”

With what 15 walks like

“Remember that throughout your clinical year”

How it talks like

“I saw her eating Popeyes yesterday”

Why it feels in the depths of a soul

“She’s on her phone again…”

And that I knew all this

“We know how this has gone in the past”

But failed to act on time

“She’s not going to be compliant”

I only pray for someone braver

“…”

Next time.