The Chaos of the Clinic

Poetry

Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash

The waiting room is buzzing
like a hive of bees.
Folks with all their troubles,
hoping someone sees.

I step out into the crowd
and call my first patient,
a tiny woman named Rae.
“Come on in with me,” I say
with a smile on my face.
“How can I help you today?”

“There’s this ringing in my ears,”
she starts, her eyes full of tears.
“Can you take a look inside?”
I’m struck by the pain in her eyes.
She’s desperate for a pill, a drop,
or anything to make it stop.
But there’s no fever, oozing,
or infection that I can see.
She needs a referral to E.N.T.
And I need to move along —
lots of people are waiting for me.
I wish I could fix everyone,
but I have limits I can’t exceed,
and I’m already running
at maximum speed.