by Tara Menon
The Boston Globe states
there’s a shortage of breast biopsy needles
in the nation, the result of a recall.
Doctors need to conserve their supply.
Breast cancer diagnoses are delayed.
We mustn’t sprout cancer cells
at least until the end of March.
Better yet, we must remain healthy
our entire lives while science
invents ways to cure or prevent diseases.
What do we do about shortages
when the Strait of Hormuz closes
or when nations hoard supplies as weapons of wars
or when global warming results in more pandemics,
overwhelming hospitals to prioritize surgeries,
or when doctors are forced to turn down patients
or when the cost of insurance swells to smother us?
What then?
None of those scenarios have to happen, you know.
The worst enemy is the shrug of shoulders.
there’s a shortage of breast biopsy needles
in the nation, the result of a recall.
Doctors need to conserve their supply.
Breast cancer diagnoses are delayed.
We mustn’t sprout cancer cells
at least until the end of March.
Better yet, we must remain healthy
our entire lives while science
invents ways to cure or prevent diseases.
What do we do about shortages
when the Strait of Hormuz closes
or when nations hoard supplies as weapons of wars
or when global warming results in more pandemics,
overwhelming hospitals to prioritize surgeries,
or when doctors are forced to turn down patients
or when the cost of insurance swells to smother us?
What then?
None of those scenarios have to happen, you know.
The worst enemy is the shrug of shoulders.
Tara Menon is an Indian-American writer based in Lexington, Massachusetts. She is a two-time finalist for the Willow Run Poetry Book Award. Her latest poems are forthcoming or have appeared in AMPLIFY (Sheila-Na-Gig), The Sucharnochee Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, ONE ART: a journal of poetry, Chaotic Merge Magazine, and Grey Sparrow Journal.
