Acrostic Quotes
Fox-Trot-9

22. Hippocrates of Kos

Length of one's lifetime strung out in a distance of years
Is only a measurement of decaying maturity,
For life is the transitory passage of space
Encapsulated in one's body and mind through eternity's

Immemorial tract. Ah! life is the breath that breathes out the
Soul once the heart beats its last and the neurons draw out and expire.

Short is existence and short are these years that can
Herald the crying of a newborn at birth, and then
Onwards to the blooming of provisional youth, ere
Returning to the grave in the autumn and winter,
Then dying on the deathbed of continuous slumber.

And yet art can surpass all our longest-lived souls by
Remaining unchanged in succeeding new eyes and resurrecting
The antiquated lines of old song with succeeding new breath.

Long are the hours of work and toil to create
One exceptional piece to catch the beholder's breath, where
No aspect must be spared and all the details must
Go with the creator's design in mind.

On such a wise do I now take up my subject to
Please the ears of my listening brethren, for even if
Plato's Socrates were to dispute my words with *
On-going and meandering arguments, much like the so-called
Radical sophists of his day, I'd still have words
To say and an audience to listen to these words,
Until my words are lost in decrepit forgetfulness.
Never were there days that I did not
Incline myself to the ears of my brethren
To divine their ailments and, with much prudence,
Yield to my patients the stirrings of a cure.

For this life is but the twinkling of an eye,
Longer anticipated than the actual
Experience of living it to its maximum best. It
Eludes us in the petty scruples of our doings, turning
Things of little worth into grand spectacles of
Insignificance and political cant. I myself will
Not join in the fray or sink to their base rabble-rousing,
Going so far as to say I will not pay it any attention—

Except for the faculty of experience. I won't distinguish between
Xenos and friend in my practice of curing the ailments and **
Pains that afflict all humankind, for just as all humans are
Equals at the threshold of death, so shall all humans
Receive the cures from their ailments,
Insofar as I can by the blessing of God. Once they
Enter the threshold of my door, they shall
Never be shunned from the God-given gifts of
Care and attention a doctor provides, for
Eternal is the spring of compassion and humanity.

Despite the noble aims that compel my prescriptions, I am
Ever at the mercy of human experience. The care and
Compassion that is in my power to bestow can
Elicit the passions of envy and greed and hate,
Presupposing my compassion for
The poor and the humble or the rich and the proud as
Implicit of the gains that I supposedly get!
Vile are these misinterpretations of kindness!
Evil are the minds and the hearts that assume it!

Judge not, lest you be judged, which has an
Unsightly double sense for us
Doctors, for we are not gods of unlimited
Genius, nor are we always successful in all
Matters of diagnosis and treatment of all maladies, for
Even the best of us can misdiagnose a
Neurosis for a psychosis and vise versa,
Thereby worsening the effect of the malady.

Despite the limits of human judgement,
I will never give in to doubt or give up the
Fight that is always worth fighting, to fight
For the sick and the insane and the crippled, and
In the hour when all my treatments and attempted
Cures have failed, in the last moments of their
Untimely demise, I shall pray for them to their
Last dying breath, for even doctors must pass through
The veil that separates the living and the dead.

Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience deceptive, judgment difficult.
—Hippocrates of Kos

(To be continued...)

A/N: Hippocrates of Kos was an ancient Greek physician, considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine, referred to as the "father Western medicine," whose legacy lives on to this very day in the Hippocratic Oath that all doctors swear by.

* Socrates = (n.) a ancient Greek philosopher and near-contemporary to Hippocrates.
** Xenos = (n.) stranger or alien in Greek.

Meter: Free verse
Rhyme Scheme: None