Early in 2017, in front of his son, and wife,

Under the guise of ‘comfort care’, ‘best interests’, ‘end of life’,

The father I’d known for sixty years, a husband sixty-six,

Had sustenance and fluids withheld, in all but name, by tricks;

Antibiotics unable to do their stuff, via purposeful dehydration;

Not able to communicate, through use of full sedation;

All opposition quashed, denied, as never being proffered,

So as not to let folk know that second opinions weren’t being offered

In a rush to free up beds, a patient killed, where he was lying,

And for whom there was no more than a mere feeling he was dying…