A Grandmother’s Illness

A Grandmother’s Illness

Wearing
an amulet,
she shuns medical help—
now a physician, he remains
helpless.

Mud huts
in his own past,
he understands her fear,
with vertical scars in his heart,
his mind.

To dare
rise up above
a shantytown future,
he can’t change the mindsets of those
he loves.