Painless
(for patient patients)

I need my pain
The captain
Said
And I suppose
The captain’s
Right

Worse the luck

For all
The pain
That is
In the world

My portion
In
My body
At the moment

And for hours
And for
Days
Treatments
Notwithstanding
(they help for
a while
sometimes
but
might not resolve)

I complain

It’s inconvenient
And
Might be a sign
Of
Something worse
Inside where
I can’t see
Of
Course
And maybe a medico
Or a machine
Will tell

It is a signal
That something
Is wrong
And as
A constant
Thing
Might mean
There’s always
Something
Wrong

Which could be a
Signal
Even
Of mortality
To bear

There’s pain
And there is pain
‘Cause
There are kinds

And painless be
The world
In
The future
On
The other side
Apocalyptic
When joy
Shall go unmingled

And
Can we
Imagine
Such a thing

A time
(timeless)
And place
(not
placeless)
And new condition
While
We carry what
We carry

And regarding
Hurt
We try and
Others try
To fix us
For forbearance
And for health
Here
And now
(not timeless)

C L Couch


Captain Kirk is quoted

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash