IT’S TWISTED
BY IDACHI MALVIN
My voice is becoming hoarse
My throat is growing sore
In this referral hospital
Nurse say there is even no Panadol
Unless I go to Dawanol
I am in sixes and sevens
My mother’s soul is at the gate of heavens
Knocking!
Oh God! Don’t open,
You love her most?
I love her more than most.
She must heal, it is a must.
I will lie by this sickbed
In a coma she is admitted
Nurses! Surgeon! She is not dead
Her heartbeat is stead…
Somebody in the ward?
Oooh! It’s twisted.
‘Young girl, go home, we are still processing your mother’s medical paraphernalia”
Doctor, I have nowhere to go
I sold all households at a go
To see my mother’s health given hope.
I have nowhere to call home.
Doctor, will she get well soon?
You know a time has come in this hospital
When death and life make no difference.
The doctor attends to both who die and those who live
Those words strike my spine
It is only at the Hospital where rudeness is sandwiched in sound politeness
I am running tirelessly
Nurses are walking aimlessly
There is water shortage at the hospital,
My mother is on drip
Hospital Taps too, are on drip.
We shall have to transfer your mother to the ICU.
Wooooi!
Who will save the Hoi Polloi!
I am perplexed this is worrying!
Yesterday, today, hopefully not tomorrow
No money, but doctor says I should borrow,
Nurses say I should blame my mother for getting sick
She has made me weak.
I stop blaming the hospital.
My mother has kept me in sorrow.
Mother, you have left me.
Hopeless to this greasy void
Growing inside me
Sinking its way in deep
Through the channels within
Me, like a virus
You know I can’t fight this alone.
“Nurse, don’t you see my mother is struggling?”
“Sorry my dear, I am on whatsapp, we are discussing our next strike,
Talk to the doctor, they were paid yesterday.”
Surgeon, the nurse sent me to you.
“Young girl, I am more than ready to help, but the Hospital has no funds to purchase
Equipment. Talk to the CEO.”
Why all this dismay?
Why turn patients into inmates?
I have sold land to ease the pain,
All nurses have received their pay
Doctors have got their gain
Who will attend to my mother?
The hospital is not equipped
The surgeon cannot to be quick
He has to wait for the two patients
My sick mother and this sick hospital
Mother, this hospital is sick
Open your faint eyes, look towards the hill
The sick cannot climb the hill when ill
But mother, look far beyond the hill,
Do you see God?
He is now your only strength,
But here, we shall not board
There is no hope for growth
Things are constant
Evil is the master
The claws of death are faster
See, they are coming to devour your heart
Doctor!!!!!
“the doctor is not here, he drove away in his Mercedes!
Nurses!!!!, come and see
“We are not coming, it’s time for screen and tea!”
Hard! I am hit!
Young girl, you have to seek help elsewhere.
Surely nurse…Where?
In the villages, take your patient to your people
They have lived over years
Tell them to seek the seers
Your mother is possessed by fears!
I resolute!
There is power in magnitude!
My people are servitude!
They will cross longitudes and latitudes
To see my mother back on her feet
To breath
To sit and to eat.
I walk out of this hospital in haste
I go out there to untwist what is twisted!