Patience

The nurse checks the patient’s blood pressure. Adjusts the flow of the IV drip. Makes a note in the file. Washes hands. Goes to the next patient. Repeats blood pressure check. Repeats washing hands. This happens seven times. She is more patient than any of us here. To what extent does her patience extend? Ask the patient’s distraught relative who came running to the nurses’ station in the middle of the night shouting, “Sister! Sister!”

a word a smile a look
on the window sill
Impatiens balsamia

Ermelinda Makkimane loves thinking poetry. Sometimes she writes down those words. Her work has been chosen for digital publication by Lucky Jefferson and the Other Worldly Women Press. She currently works from her village in Divar, Goa.