tomorrow’s problem (here today)

perhaps
every generation operates
in the same ways

it is bureaucracy
I am speaking of
of course

the movers
and the shakers
of the bureaucracy

a new broom
of reformers
to sweep the corridors clean
of old ideologues
and do-gooders
from the era just passed

so determined

so cynical

so single-minded

great excitement
among the advisors
to the minister
over permission to spend
a million dollars

an astronomical
million dollars
on a lithotripsy machine

who
in the wide world
had ever heard
of lithotripsy
let alone a machine
to perform it

but the excitement
of a decision
was a celebration
with streamers
and party hats

likewise
the resolution
to nagging old problems
such as what to do
with divisions
that had ever existed
within a single profession

general nurses
psychiatric nurses
mental retardation nurses

wrap them up

wrap them
up

a nurse
is a nurse
after all

make them one

and the rationale

the real
rationale
revealed in response
to a corridor plea
in the hallway of power

no

he said

it is you
who doesn’t understand

you are arguing
worrying
bothering yourself and me
about what will be the result
in twenty years time
of something
that we do today

I understand that
but
you
will not be here

I will not be here

it is not
today’s
problem

today
we are modernising

so
get over it

all right?

I remember
that conversation
still

look at the shape
of the hospital world
and
the nursing world

the caring
world

and wonder
what was the point
of trying

~