“Poems | Healthcare – Dinner is Served” Includes Three Poems Related to Situations Encountered in Healthcare from the Point of View of a Home Health Caregiver.
Healthcare | Really!
Do you really think
that he doesn’t know the difference between making his bed and caring for his mother?
Do you really think
because he pays out of pocket or maybe not directly for his mother’s needs that his must be met too?
Do you really think
a load full of laundry with a single bra for his mother and everything else his makes it become her laundry?
Do you really think
that because there is glass everywhere it must be mistaken for healthcare to be made streak free by me?
Do you really think
that his mother must wander away because of dementia and I’m busy cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning
cleaning and she can’t find me and I don’t know where she went?
Do you really think
that I graduated from the wrong school, took the wrong exam, got the wrong license,
went on the wrong job search, applied for the wrong job,
went on the wrong interview, sent to the wrong place for the wrong job,
with the wrong mentality and kept the job.
Or did I simply lose my mind and forgot where I was, why I’m there,
who paid for school, and … what was I saying?
Do you really think that?
*
Happy to be Here
I combed her hair and placed her in the chair
Her disposition’s better out of bed
She starts the day just happy to be here
In spite of all the aches and pains to bear
And sometimes there is throbbing in her head
I combed her hair and placed her in the chair
Her husband died and left her in my care
For sixty years and two they had been wed
She starts her day just happy to be here
The changes in her life she’s not aware
And daily ask for her departed Fred
I combed her hair and placed her in the chair
To socialize I take her everywhere
There’s nothing more she’d rather do instead
She starts the day just happy to be here
Exuberance she shows for life is rare
She is content as long as she is fed
I combed her hair and placed her in the chair
She starts the day just happy to be here
*
Dinner is Served!
I set the table with your dish
and placed the fish
upon the bed
of lettuce head.
It’s time for you to have your meal
before you feel
too weak to eat
or take a seat
with friends and family around.
They hear the sound
of plates unswerved.
Dinner is served!
Poems by ©Veron Lee Campbell