Is Tarah

Once… Over Thousands

Trickling through a verbal stenosis,
Mum’s words tumble to the doctor
About her child’s condition aortic –
‘Will she walk, talk, normally live
After the surgery?’

But pursed are the doctor’s lips,
Her eyes static on the cardiography.
‘Doctor… Doctor…  Doc..’ mum pleads,
Then ‘Greta!…’ at which
The doctor deadpans, ‘But she already did,
For twenty years, no less!,
Swum, played the trumpet and tennis!’

Doctor Greta wasn’t even six
When the valve in her left ventricle
Looked the same… even her mum
Had voiced that worried question.
‘I did mother… just bring her!’,
She finished.

No coincidence –
This was Greta’s thousandth patient?!

– Bolbul