Poem – Rae Varcoe

When considering euthanasia

 

First, you should own a wise physician friend,
a young one, the kind who could find
a needle in a brainstorm.
If not, rent one.

If you wish, consult a minister or priest.
(For myself, I would avoid those with vestry interests.)
Perhaps pay a little visit to the chemist.

Then define your terms.

No.8 wire need not feature here.
If you could do-it-yourself,
you might not need to do it at all.
Cancer pain’s dissolved these days
and depression lifts with chemistry.

It’s the others we must consider:
the swatch of clot in the cerebral cortex,
the implacable tangle of Alzheimer’s
the panic attacks when lungs sit huddled
desperate in the chest.

The loss of lists, gifts and gracefulness.
Consider those.

Then,
maybe,

ask a favour

of your friend

 

Rae Varcoe

Tagged with: , ,
Posted in Poem
Search the archive

More results...

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Filter by Categories
Architecture
Art
Autobiography
Awards
Biography
Byline
Children
Comment
Contents
ebooks
Economics
Editorial
Education
Essays
Extract
Fiction
Gender
Graphic novel
Health
History
Imprints
Language
Lecture
Letters
Letters
Literature
Māori
Media
Memoir
Music
Natural History
Non-fiction
Obituaries
Opinion
Pacific
Photography
Plays
Poem
Poetry
Politics & Law
Psychology
Religion
Review
Science
Short stories
Sociology
Sport
War
YA Reviewers
Young adults
Recent issues: subscriber-only access

    Subscribe to NZ Books to access the issues above

    Search by category

    See more