The Patient Was Diagnosed Already Dead Poem by Patti Masterman

We were at the beauty shop,
and the normal banter started up,
amid the click of the scissors.

My ears pricked up, when I heard the sudden confession,
'We're getting a divorce'-
and then there was some back-stepping, excuse making
rationalization..it must be something in the air..
‘Everybody's doing it lately-’
It sounded like a new fad.

I thought of the amount of pain
that must lie behind that simple, brave statement,
and the next thought was, how do you make it all right-
How do you ever get life back to normal again?

Her blatant obviating and explaining away
of the situation made me cringe.
No one forced her to tell us
of disappointment in her private life;
apparently not even a generous, revealing nature
can save one from divorce, that's meant to be.

Divorce, the new cancer of our age,
now viewed as more like a bolt of lightning
than the failure of a relationship.