Please press right side of button below to hear introduction…
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IN TERMS OF GERMS
Once you start thinking in terms of germs,
you fall in with the dreamers of other demons.
Along with those apprehended by apparitions
and those attending to voices that cannot be heard,
you delve into the realm of the imperceptible.
Vile spirits of viruses and bacteria
swarm on doorknobs, window sashes, and writing implements.
Worse than seeing them
is not seeing them, yet being keenly and constantly aware
that they are there.
For there in the dark realm of the imperceptible,
vexed by spates of spectral viruses,
beleaguered by incubus-loads of bacteria,
you doom yourself to dwell on the demons of dis-ease,
once you start thinking in terms of germs.
(Mike Cohen – Jul 2008)
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TRICK OR TREATMENT?
God save us from doctors and their treatments!
Does anyone, after all, survive medical treatment?
Patients endure it for a time, but eventually succumb.
Of course, you won’t find medical treatment implicated on a death certificate…
…not surprising when you consider who fills out the death certificate.
But death aside, what about the effects of medical treatment on life?
Of all the time spent in doctors’ offices and hospitals
how many pleasurable moments have there been?
Why do patients continue to flock to medical treatment facilities
to have torturous procedures inflicted on them
when they could pass the time much more agreeably?
Far better to go to a museum and look at artwork,
or to go to a concert hall and listen to music,
or to go to a theater and watch a play,
or even, perhaps, to go into a closet, close the door, and scream in the dark,
or to go to your desk and write a therapeutic
(for the writer) diatribe against
doctors and their treatments.
(Mike Cohen - June 2008)
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LEVERAGING THE PROGNOSIS
When told by the doc she was dyin’
poor little old Mrs. O’Brien
said, “If I am so ill,
no use payin’ my bill.”
Doc replied, “In that case, I was lyin’.”
(Mike Cohen - c. 1992)
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Please press right side of button below to hear poem…
THE HEALTH GUIDE
In The Health Guide you read not of health
but of unhealthy things,
a fulsome spectrum of sicknesses,
and how, perhaps, to evade them
for a while.
The book offers treatments for them all
and tentative remedies for a few,
but The Health Guide’s potency lies in its descriptions
of the terrible ways some of these maladies kill you
and the terrible ways some of them don’t.
It is likely too much to survive,
and certainly too much to abide,
and it is all there on the pernicious pages
of that seemingly salubrious publication
with the diabolically deceptive title,
The Health Guide.
(Mike Cohen – May 2008)
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Please press right side of button below to hear poem…
A bit of sympathy may mitigate a malady, but is not likely to be forthcoming. People seldom take the time or have the patience for the miseries of others. “How are you?” is virtually a rhetorical question. If you want your response to get any attention you may have to seize the questioner and shout…
PARDON ME BUT I’M IN PAIN
Pardon me but I’m in pain…
feel pins and needles in my brain.
It hurts so much I can’t explain.
I could try, but it would be in vain.
Pardon me but I’m in pain.
Pardon me, but don’t be curt.
It’s hard to keep myself alert
when all that I can feel is hurt.
I’d be better off inert.
Pardon me but I’m in pain.
It’s crazy how a man reacts.
But, oh, how agony distracts!
The heavy toll that pain exacts
outweighs nature’s gracious acts.
Pardon me but I’m in pain.
You may feel too well to relate
to one who’s in a hurtful state
and whose discomfort slows his rate.
Your patience fails, or comes too late.
Empathy is not innate.
It hasn’t touched you yet, but wait…
Right now it’s none of your concern.
However, you are bound to learn.
Each creature gets its rightful turn.
In time the straightest road will curve.
You’ll find distress and lose your nerve.
You, too, will get what you deserve
like me, and I’m in pain.
Pardon me but I’m in pain…
feel pins and needles in my brain.
It may be driving you insane
listening to me complain,
but until my torments wane
you’ll have to bear with this refrain.
Pardon me but I’m in pain.
(Mike Cohen – 2004)
