Abstract
Another wheeze, breathlessness,
Rousing sighs move the stethoscope's air.
Curious eyes fill with hesitating hope.
But yellow fingers cry out beware.
Disease was always imminent,
Indeed, the nicotine-scent could tell.
One more victim, one more defeat,
One more who wishes to get well.
An instant of weightlessness,
Like a car breaking through the fence.
Time dangled frozen, for a moment,
Until the news broke the suspense.
What treatment to begin with,
While coping with denial and despair?
Could recovery still be a possibility,
Or need we shift from cure to care?
Medical visits more regularly,
To monitor deterioration every other day,
Soothe grief and discomfort carefully,
Discuss acceptance, if that is okay.
Craving for relief of pain and misery,
And delayed what alas cannot be escaped.
When comfortably numb on medication,
A final decision is now to be made:
Should life be lived,
In this heartless
Shape
?