MEDICAL NOTES OF AN ILLEGAL DOCTOR
Please note: this Hyperpoem can be mutated by the reader...
It is not the news that is bad,
But the interpretation.
- I am the Doctor on the Galleon.
The whip-striped backs paraded
through
my surgery belong
to complex Bio
machines.
Circuitry
quite similar to my own,
but chained, forcedly,
within a grid of oars.
- I am the Whipper on this ship,
To have so many people -
emotions, hopes, dreams -
chained within my target reach
is just enough to keep away
my own fears until the evening
comes & I go drinking w/
the guards.
Soon (it is rumoured)
they will merge these two
positions, to cut down on
fleet expenditure.
The Doctors & Whippers
live in fear of redundancy.
Who has the greatest
skill?
Who are the whipperdocs
of the future?
INTERVIEWS:
[1] Doctor: How can a whipper appreciate
the finer points of medicine?
How can he cope
With lacerated backs &
viscerality that turns
the stomach of the operand?
Interviewer: But can you whip another human?
Can you bare the pain & screams?
Will empathetic agony overwhelm you?
Doctors are trained to help a person,
and if they hurt them in doing so
they do not feel bad, but only
because the pain is to the greater
good of the patient.
Doctor: I see pain on a daily basis,
my treating of a slave just
dooms her to longer slavery,
I am no stranger to human pain.
But let me whip, let me whip &
I can truly be of help!
I'll drive those slaves to
build their muscles:
"No pain no gain!" I'll scream,
& those whose muscles grow
will find their rowing easier,
and those who are too weak
I'll whip until they die: and
help them find their only
escape.
[2] Whipper: How can a Doctor learn
the finer points of whippery?
Too hard or too soft leads
to inefficiency & low morale.
A Doctor is too educated
to cope w/ this riff-raff,
they will hare his cultured
ways. There will be no chat.
Interviewer: But can you bear to see a constant
parade of pain, that is not induced by you?
Pain abstracted from your anger, &
placed onto another human coming
begging to you for help? And can you
learn to be a pain-remover after so
long as a pain creator? Can you wield
a scalpel with the skill of a whip but
the love of a parent?
Whipper: Love? Love! My love for people
is surpassed by none. I spend
my working & my private hours
amongst people. I feel the
agony of each whip blow, &
it drives me on to whip the
more. It is because I love
that I hurt: But abstract the
pain & you abstract the love,
& so I will love for the sake
of love, and cure for the sake
of curing.
The Doctor and the Whipper,
wait to hear the news.
[Back]
[Back]
GUARDS
Good lads!
fed with tripe/trauma,
lasset, lust - breathing
fumes - sweat of day
evapoured in night
cavern - gallery,
Wooden cups slap
so loudly:
never shatter (crack?)
little waves of drink
spill over side.
Red hand print on back,
We sate/forsake
this
burning
DAILY
the shifting of
sun over head
reflection skimmed
across the blue
each day - shallow sun.
Doctor's bald
patch red: fingers
touch it.
The passing of
peelings on the deck -
scuff note - scuff
mark: a doctor's good
shoes
[Back]
THE INTERVIEWER
has much to say & so
little time to say it,
She retires to her cabin,
hears the guards
dancing, buggering.
This is a dream -
this is not a dream.
this is a total battle
of the senses, in
the realm of her dark
bunk, she thinks
of
promotion.
[Back]
FUTURE
no
parallels,
just fears, dishonest futures.
They were all are unlinear:
they were all a fearful
approximation; but when
bound by this approximation
she could not escape
not even in the
depths
[Back]
DEPTH
In depth,
in troth,
in dream of
corrosion,
I smelled/smelt your drinking.
somebody smiled: a
questioning look was
burned onto my retina
[Back]
BURNED
Fire kindled at
ship's base,
We swore across
the sea at
dream rate/dream
speed,
I and you we
turned & shifted gazes
past osiron's burning
beak,
past the rhythm of
the wave, & the
cool fresh saltiness
I can almost touch
& cool against.
[Back]
Mutate MEDICAL NOTES OF AN ILLEGAL DOCTOR
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