Via Dolorosa - Life at Palliative Care - POEM

     A couple of weeks back, as a part of my ward rounds postings, I was posted at a missionary palliative care hospital to provide care to patients there. It was a memorable experience being posted there and to interact with the team present there. If you are wondering what does this term 'palliative care means' ?? Well, It refers to relieving and preventing the suffering of patients. Patients usually come to palliative care for comfort care in cases of long term disease management as well as care for those who are nearing end of life. Most of the cases that I happened to see were cancer oriented cases, where therapy had failed, and the patients were admitted here for symptomatic management until life permits... So, with all that I have seen and done at the palliative care, it has inspired me to write this poem "Via Dolorosa- Life at palliative care".
Via Dolorosa -meaning to way of suffering or painful way (In Latin)

Clawing to guts of their life,
praying for their afterlife.
Illness thwarts over resistance, slow and bleak,
until end approaches, feisty over the weak.

I see them cocooned on their bed,

ogling at the sky with eyes wide spread.
A scene of dim light and scattered clouds,
with fierce dreams of inhume shrouds.
Some cry amidst their vaults of pain,
while the rest shout in vain.


Worried kinfolks move in and out,
while the forsaken emotionally bout.
I confer stories- happy or sad,
be it serious, funny or bad.
Some heard me regularly,
while, some lived to listen rarely.
Slowly, they braved equanimity
learning to accept life or death as verity.


- Sulaiman Sait