10,782. THE DOCTOR WENT BEGGING

THE DOCTOR WENT BEGGING

Hand to mouth, with a foot in

the door  -  out one way and in

another. The doctor went begging

and got nothing in return. The

dead by this time were piling up

and no one knew quite what to do.

Men picked daisies and found lilies

for each grave. Beneath the grass

was a magic transformation.

-

Before the plague came, when I

was yet alive, we were only then 

learning how to mark the days. 

-

Little to go on, yes, that was true,

but we learned by the rise and the set

of the sun-orb above us what was

meant by the passage  -  time forged

itself, around us, even though we

claimed it. Years and years went 

by me, and I absorbed with full 

knowledge all of what I was doing.

-

Then the vast diseases hit and all 

mankind began to fall  -  villages

rotted, amidst their  resignations,

and people died in place. One after

the other, they went. We learned 

by marking calendars what was 

all around us happening. So many 

names arose : Black Death, Bubonic

Plaque. Rats and ships. Rats again, 

and ships some more; as doctors

went begging, from door to door.

-

Before the plague came, when I

was yet alive, we were only then 

learning how to mark the days.