Pallium India Inc

POEM

Pallium: A poem

By Dr. Tom McNalley

On the hard cots of Kerala, in the homes

of the impoverished and the prosperous,

close by the rubber trees weeping

from the black angled lacerations

their tears falling into coconut husks,

the suffering and the dying lie expectant.

We press multiply into singular spaces, accept seats in chairs,

the wives or the sons, husbands or daughters bring us

the blister packs, the folded kraft-paper bags,

marked 1-0-1, 1-1-1-, 0-0-1 for the thrice-divided day.

Under the stoic gazes of the ancestors,

they tell us the stories their bodies have told them.

We attend with mind, heart to the songs of suffering,

nod, sway inside ourselves, rhythmic

to the shared song of impermanence.

The suffering and dying smile and reach out their hands,

we are for the moment all less alone,

we share the dance of last life before death.

Our Blogs

Lessons Learned About Palliative Care in India
By Guest Author Danielle Pittman
“Our Central Line”, Winter 2011 Volume 19, Issue 1

What inspired you?
By Dr.Theodore Nguyen
Pallium India
By Dr.Ann Broderick