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Care is a relative term

Neutron Catheter Patency Device

By Calleamanecer - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link.

No wonder you’ve come
to the E.R. Why didn’t you
take the medicine prescribed
for you. So careless.

You couldn’t afford it?
Again, how thoughtless.
If you can’t afford it,
you shouldn’t get sick.

No insurance? We can’t
help you. We’re not
in business for people
without good insurance.

Your doctor can care
for you. No personal
doctor? We just don’t know
what’s wrong with you.

Except, it’s not our problem:
So many invisible people
like you die every day and
we couldn’t care less.

Marge Piercy is the author of twenty books of poetry, most recently On the Way Out, Turn Off the Light, plus seventeen novels, a memoir, a short story collection, and five nonfiction books.
2023, Volume 75, Number 07 (December 2023)
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