Jessiela Roberts
On Terminal Disease Square, at the intersection of Doubt and Despair, live the Benders of time,
Shape Shifters, specialized in contorting time by manipulating disease states with magical elixirs, heroic measures, and gadgets capable of delaying the inevitable.
Time, unimpressed with the trickery and smoke screens slips by slowly, undisturbed.
At the corner of, No More Options live the cerebral demigods,
twisting facts with statistics, peddling hope to appeal to the unmet expectations for a cure,
in an attempt to sell the promise of time with one more treatment.
Fear, guilt and defeat tap dance on patrons’ conscience,
How can we give up without a fight they say?
Sadly they agree to barter quality of time in lieu of quantity of days,
“All bets are off the table” and “money is no object”, except for those who lack.
They place their bets on the odds that Science will once again defeat death, while dignity is lost at all cost.
In a game of Russian Roulette the healers take their best shot,
Successful!
Life hangs suspended between eternity and purgatory,
Destiny paused temporarily!
Two paths lie ahead at a fork in the road,
The Keepers of Time summoned urgently to offer guidance and comfort along the way,
To trade time for the certainty of quality and comfort is the path most feared,
To preserve dignity one must choose to redefine hope and accept death as a normal path of life’s journey.
Death though deferred can never be denied,
Time sold can never be retrieved,
Time planned can always be cherished.
Jessiela Roberts, M.D., is a Family Medicine Specialist in Fort Smith, AR. She is a graduate of Trinity School of Medicine.