Shrunken Banana (Poem)

Shrunken Banana

I knew him barely

On the University Hill

He too started in physics

Our common friend – another physicist

In Radiology

Talked about him

Now, it’s too late

We do not know

The real cause

Was it all due to the 

Radiation, particle or photon

But he knew about the field

In depth -

Its regulations, the risks

He must have cured

Or at least given, supervised

The most appropriate dose

What they say: in micro-Curies

To numerous patients

But slogging for twelve years

With the underlying illness

Can you believe?

What it was like?

For him or for anybody

He provided for his wife 

And children

Often helped the local

Immigrant community

Strange, his wife would only 

Say, say with teary eyes: “He

Did so much work around the

House, gardening. Now the plants

Like abandoned children feel it too”

We know anything, rather the value

Of any entity

When we lose it

The shrunken, dehydrated banana

Plant stands pitiably in shame murmuring

“More than anybody in the family

I knew him and his gentle touch” 

Copyright 2022 by the author