Lamentations On a Free Market

Chapter 2 of 6 - Health care

Chapter II

Death from neglect in a hospital -
just a dot plot on a line
knotted with potted people,
a point stabbed on a cost-benefit-analysis-supply-demand curve
marking the end of a client cash flow -
an actuarial averaging of someone else's angst.
Vengeful or angry deaths are cruel,
but from well-manicured fingerprintless hands,
merely brutal.
(chorus) The cause of finality:
"aggressive banality";
saith heaven-sent
Saint Hannah Arendt
Pinstriped graphs remotely tabulate
the error rate of healing;
but the son of man counts them
the error rate of the kingdom;
not a statistical deviation, but a deviancy,
illuminating tears and tears in a culture's spiritual fabric -
rips and ruptures leak the blood of values,
and proclaim the loss of your soul.
Beware your healing houses built for love of gilt,
not for love of healing -
medical care without the caring.
Verily, warily, wearily I say unto you,
you have lost your way.

Alcuin of York

Comments

White_Feather -
Having spent some years working the 'death unit' of a major inner city hospital, i find this piece disturbing and terribly apt. Well, so far, all in this series are poignant,(and clever, and entertaining at the same time), but this one i know in my bones. those "brutal fingerprintless hands" definitely sweep destruction through patients, but manage to leave scars on the staff as well. i've been wanting to find some verse for those stories, but wanted to tell you how much i appreciated this.

Derma Kaput -

"Verily, warily, wearily I say unto you..."

I enjoy this kind of language and allusion in a poem. In fact, the whole piece is very strong. I'm hoping in the future I'll have more time to spend here and check out this whole series. If the rest is anything like this, I think you're really onto some powerful poetry Fred.

Derma Kaput -
Oh yeah, and the chorus. I love the use of the chorus, mainly because of a long standing love of ancient Greek drama. It adds a very interesting dimension to what you've done here. Can I assume that plays a role in other chapters too?

Tracey -
Oh. My. Gosh. You're singing my family's tune -- or perhaps it's more accurate to say that you're putting the perfect words to the theme that plays in our heads and conversations. Excellent insights and execution.