NO PILLS FOR THE PAIN

Patrick O'Shea

No pills for the pain, as you watch your loved one suffer, no pills for the pain as you hear of the loss of a
loved one,

No pills for the pain as you try to understand what is happening to the loved one, as they smile and say
it’s really not so bad, or it’s unbearable,

No pills for the pain as you stand silently with a hole in the heart where your son or daughter used to be,
and scream inside at the loss,

No pills for the pain due your impotence in the face of the loved one’s body failing, and them trying to
spare you full understanding of their pain.

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No ease for the brain, as the eyes reflect the terror of the news from a doctor, that their life is going to
change forever, and shorten dramatically,

No ease for the brain, as the understanding leads you down a dark and lonely path, a path you never
imagined, but now will lead you to your dark road,

No ease for the brain, as you see the society you thought you knew, taking directions that will not allow
your comprehension, treatment too expensive,

No ease for the brain, as loved ones begin to vanish in a cloud of memory loss, incontinence, inability to
cope, and then forget what you were and who you are.

​

No pills for the pain, no oxycodone, uppers, downers, pink pills, green pills, blue pills, can do anything
but dull the pain, but can never remove it,

No ease for the brain can come from the society so drugged that it no longer seems to be aware of what
it is, where it is, or what it is,

No pills for the pain that is a part of our life, that part which is the unwanted friend of the joy and
happiness that we seem to have always wanted,

No ease for the brain except in the love we bear, the love we share, and the knowledge that we can still
care for those with the pain.