How did I manage to schedule a cardiology appointment for today?
Valentine’s Day?
Was it a Freudian slip?
Some unconscious maneuver?
An oversight?
It’s hard to know.
But, not one word uttered in the office about Valentine’s Day.
No greeting about Cupid’s holiday.
No cut-out hearts or flowers on the walls.
In a waiting room teeming with patients.
Rather, business as usual.
All about examination of the heart.
The muscle animating us.
Keeping us alive, breathing, moving.
For me, about results of lipid panels.
Medication changes.
Scheduling a CT scan to search for calcified plaque.
Determining risk of coronary artery disease.
A test, not possible to get till August!
Not a mention of exercise.
Or what I eat to keep arteries clean.
Just a perfect Western-style med management appointment.
How do you maintain romance?
When the clinical, so harsh?
So numerical, invasive?
Lucky, I like a bit of irony.
The unexpected inspires me.
Though not comforting entirely,
heart doctors extend my warranty.
Lynn Benjamin
February 18, 2024