A Doctor’s Dilemma - Pete Gioconda

A Doctor’s Dilemma

PATIENT: (aside) New York could well come down –
              we’ll establish a hand-greased piston pounding,
              a heart valve to trickle blood for health,
              no matter what our doctors say:
              “Hold on tight, let Broadway sigh,
              but slowly squeeze it out
              in the form of crusty handshakes.”

DOCTOR: (lowers head) I shake to resolve my cure absolve.
              Hard life, I know – help don’t I know –
              but to assist my fellow friends
              there’s a game to play I might well lose,
              with no booklet rules, medically speaking,
              for War or Peace.

PATIENT: That’s true, and I always crack thought shells
              over a broken Spanish omelette hash
              of “kick the rich” and “hold back tax” and Love.
              (Ponders for a minute, then looks up)
              There’s an eggbox for my conscience (free range) –
              the Doctor gave it me –
              to allow me time before I fly to face the press
              on my shells fragile blessed, planning.

(First published by Islington Poetry Workshop in “Nagging Heads”, 1985; and in small poetry magazine “A Doctor’s Dilemma”, 1985.)