Poem: To Cure Is To Care For

The calamity of so long life.

This poem was published in my 2017 collection, Well Met: Poems of Companionship. It uses the multiple meanings of the word “cure” to explore what the Christian life will be like with our new and ever-extending lifespans, and what the implications are for society and for the Church.

I encourage you to listen to the audio above, which is basically just my reading of the poem. The text is below.

To Cure Is To Care For
(The Calamity Of So Long Life)

Better to be cured and die
Than to healed be and live.

To cure is to care for,
Said the museum head.
That's what the pills are there for,
Retorted the mummy undead.

If medicine is magical
Then what does the doctor do?
His care is clearly clerical,
His licenses not a few.

To live so long immured
Don't strike as dignified.
To care for is to cure.
If only I had died!

If only you were by my side.

To cure is to care for,
The caring is what cures.
A remedy with no wherefore
Destroys its life for sure.

If medicine is magical
Then what am I living for?
An eternal life that's chemical
And a body never sore.

There's the respect that makes
Calamity of so long life:
The crippled fear of aches and breaks,
Of fortune and the two-edged knife.

If medicine is magical
Then surely there's a pill for that.
The science of life is practical
And surely there's a pill for that.

To cure is to care for
Said the parish priest.
The only way to get there
Is the belly of the beast.

If salves and balms are magical
What does the philosopher do?
He rubs his chin methodical
And thinks it hardly through.

If medicine is magical
Then magical is art.
Think of the boy in the bubble
And the baby with the baboon heart.

To be cured until I die
Is what I ask from life.

The only way to get
Through the belly of the beast
Is to die for once the death
That gets you to the feast.

To cure is to care for,
He said as he slipped the blade,
Dividing joint from marrow
Before the body decayed.

Word Hoard is where Joffre discusses the arts of God and man, including passion for poetry, love of lyric, enthusiasm for etymology, and other alliterative expressions of Logos. Consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.