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Electronic pages - Poetry and prose
Some of my friends
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  1. Daniel Thomas Moran
  1. Correspondence to Daniel Thomas Moran, School of Dental Medicine/Department of General Dentistry, Boston University, 100 E. Newton St., Boston, MA 02118, USA; dan{at}danielthomasmoran.net

https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2011-010081

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    Some of my friends

    are becoming concerned.

    About lumps where there

    were none before.

    Some thing which

    does not look right.

    Their comforts undermined by

    pains sharp or dull.

    The need to draw breath

    into deeper places.

    Some are feeling vulnerable.

    Their eyes are clouding,

    words appearing to dissolve,

    sounds soft and muffled.

    Some of my friends

    need procedures and

    further testing.

    They will have to

    travel to someplace

    far and unfamiliar

    and wait.

    They will try to recall

    when sleep came easy.

    Now they might have

    to be kept overnight,

    have blood let by

    girls named Betty.

    Lie beneath beams

    which will turn their

    skin to rice paper.

    All of their functions

    will be distilled

    to graphs and digits.

    Some of my friends

    seem to be wearing out.

    Their pink becoming grey.

    Their tightness loosened.

    Some will be told today.

    Footnotes

    • Competing interests None.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.