THE TALE OF SOPHIA, THE STRONG

 

                             

                                ( I )

 

      A stalwart figure tall with manly gait

     With frizzled, brown hair hanging down

     A marching figure with perpetual frown;

     Her dominant looks stern and straight

     Her broad visage not red like diamond mine

     But threatening like burning coal doth shine;

     Though she speaks little, her looks are keen

     She grasps patient’s feelings and pain unseen.

                                    ( I I )

    Her name struck fear in patients’ hearts

    Her words touched them like winged darts;

   And yet her nursing skills impressed a lot

    Though she looked grim, too well she played her part.

    Too punctual is she and hoped the same from others

    In spotless white, she moved with smart, quick pace

   She curbed patients too, in disciplined ways;

   She treated well poor ailing kids and mothers; 

                               ( I I I )

   Her name, Sophia, a wise but stern nature she had.

   When patients cribbed about not getting sleep

   Her thunderous shouts drove them to slumber deep

   She never showed her feelings to make them glad

   If anyone from her any help did seek

   Her looks enough, made them mute and meek;

   She did not like to make patients feel weak

   She never let them chat and loudly speak.

                               ( I V )

   She snubbed them a lot in a bantering style

  “You drink yourself to reach the gates of hell

   Stop writhing in pain”, she used to yell.

   ‘Your lecherous ways spoiled you, creature vile!

   To struggle with filthy diseases dire;

   You cry now wriggling like worms in fire”

   She made them see their sins, she spoke harsh and hard

   And yet she treated all with care in her ward. 

                                      ( V )

   Though Sophia struck terror in patients’ eyes

   And galled them with her stern looks spouting fire

   A noble intention lurks behind her ire;

   She chastened their minds with warnings wise;

   No drunkard dared to look at her again

   No womanizer dared to face her disdain;

   Sophia, loved them all despite her dare-devil face

   A dutiful nurse who saved them from wretched ways.

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          19th June, 2021                      Somaseshu Gutala

Note : Many of us may have the experience of meeting serious and sombre medical staff who do not like to entertain us with talk. Yet we are impressed by their sincere and dedicated services, their correct prescription and proper diagnosis. We always remember their valuable advice and their help in our lives.  

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NOTHING LASTS LONG

 

 

                   

                     

 

                    

1)Thou, Curse of man’s crooked and cunning mind!

   Thou, man’s cruel intelligence unkind!

   Thou, a tiny group of proteins that multiplies

   Thou, devourer of cells growing in monstrous size

   Thou, dreadful deathless power not yielding to lotions

   No antidote, not yielding to magic potions

   Varying thy structure in manifold ways

   Spreading throughout the world for so many days.

 

2)      Why hast thou turned so hard and dealt with our fate?

   Why hast thou plunged us in such pitiable state?

   Why hast thou orphaned kids and left their parents dead?

   Why hast thou deprived so many winners of bread?

   Why hast thou left so many mothers shocked with grief?

   Why hast thou left mothers with kids with no relief?

   Why hast thou left so many jobless and starve on streets?

   Why hast thou let them die like plants in desert heat?

 

3)       And yet you made us human to help others in need

   To give whatever we have reducing our greed;

   So many through health camps give support free;

   To bring some warmth and fill their hearts with glee;    

   So many came to rescue to bring comfort and peace;

   So many funerals they did, the noblest service; 

   So many helped in charity in cash and kind

   You, too, stop your destructive deeds of this kind.

 

4)       Some, like thee, turned so inhuman and hard   

   Forgetting their morals, duties they discard

   Like leeches at once they suck as best as they could

   From dying patients their source like blood

   They still retain the dead till their families fill

   All bloated payments and greedy bills;

   Even funerals, charges shot up with rocket-speed

   Humanity is dead: patients suffer for people’s greed.

 

5)     You brought so many changes in our daily needs

   Never our bullish egos so far made to yield

   Never stayed indoors and works we finish

   Never have we tasted home-made meals with relish

   Never have we leisure at home to spend

   Never have we time to others our ears to lend;

   Never have we time good books to read

   And nourish our ideals and lessen our greed.

 

6)      You made us see the risks of knowledge going astray

  Diseased minds with greedy designs do play

  In destructive, diabolic, harmful ways;

  Look, how for one’s error the whole world has to pay

  A heavy toll of life with irrecoverable loss

  How perverted minds transgress Nature’s laws?

  Causing so much misery to whole world enmasse

  Our hopes all lost, how can we this disaster bypass?

 

7)      You taught us the true value of labor hard

  Though crores of people lost their jobs, oh Lord!

  Their flooding tears and sighs beyond our bounds

  Whose hearts won’t melt on hearing their wailing sounds?

  You taught us the true value of money and goods

  You taught us the true value of family and food;

  You taught us to survive with leisurely pace

  You taught us to look for alternative ways.

 

8)    You have shattered the future dreams of youth and thrown

  Their chances of winning plum posts in firms well-known;

  You made jobless people to their villages retire

  And work in fields to forget their stress and despair;

  You made us go for new digital ways

  To buy and sell our ware with no delays;

  You made our wards to learn at home online

  Though they miss their teachers’ dealings offline.

 

9)      Even stray dogs and beasts suffered a lot

   In deserted streets due to Covid onslaught;

   None fed those poor creatures and none did care;

   As they roamed looking for remnants everywhere;

  The beggars and vagrants in a pitiable state

  Seek food shelters bemoaning their cruel fate;

  You threw our lives broken and out of gear

  Even hospitals overcrowded, no bed to spare.

10)  Vaccines, the last refuge to save mankind;

  You made us suffer a lot, Thou, Virus blind!

  Our clumsy, lavish ways to hurt Nature kind

  Taught us to blend wisdom with care in our minds;

  To escape thy cruel grip and adjust

  Wearing face-masks and keep distance, a must;

  To lead a simple life, follow all rules and mend

  Ourselves; nothing lasts long; we hope to see thy end.

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   10th June, 2021                           Somaseshu Gutala