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The people of the world

 

The people of the world

 

& she was to die

My darling mother

The woman who’d carried me inside her

& reared me

As thick as thieves we’d been

An honest friend

Philosopher, entertainer

Giver of just counsel & comfort

We had the same sense of humour

6 months ago she’d admitted finally to defeat

To 60 years with a polio throat

That had made swallowing food such a struggle

She had a peg put in

So she fed through a tube straight into her stomach

Bypassing her mouth

In the last months of her life

As western medicine prefers

At any cost to prolong life 

Life ceased to have any flavour

& she would "welcome death"

In those days before she died

Life had beaten & battered her

Whether by God or man

I listened to her words sympathetically

As she’d always understood

As it came to the end

In those last days & hours

Her mouth would be always open

& her tongue visible & manic

As she searched desperately

For saliva to moisten her parched throat

Desperate to help her

Me, the youngest

Appealed to the nurse

“Please, before she goes,

Can she please have a sip of water, please?”

The nurse looked kindly at me

“I’m so sorry,

Orders are ‘Nil by Mouth’”

I paused a moment

“Have you ever heard the saying

‘Would you deny a dying man

a drink?’”

The nurse listened, went away

& came back

“I guess she could suck a block of ice”

& mum did

Savouring the ice & its melting water

Like it was the only thing in the world

I thanked the nurse

We saw the God (or good, if you prefer)

In one another

 

Without the knowledge of proverbs

Folk sayings

Our oral culture

The poetry of the people

I don’t think the nurse would’ve been so moved

But also, without the nurse’s humanity

She wouldn’t have been moved by mere words 

This is why poetry needs both listener & speaker

That we can live together as a people

Enriched by the wisdom of the ages

Us, the people of the world

 

 

Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2025.


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