Consultation
Helen Kay

You have just ten minutes, starting now,
for me to listen tactfully to symptoms
then grasp your real reasons for coming
to ponder twenty pathways for a lump
to touch places, to use Latin-named tools
and explain them, to compose prescriptions
selecting from a hundred brands of drug
to step back from the fact that your growth
may be terminal and you have young kids
to be your soothing medicine, to listen
to care deeply that you suffer no hurt
(which really is why I swore the oath)
to take punchbag talk not of my making,
then to type it all up before the next ten
and the next ten tens until we hit the target
of more casualties, more cuts, more sutures
and we carry on talking faster, typing faster.
No tears, tap, come again, tap, next please.