Treatment At The Springs Government Dental Clinic Poem by Gert Strydom

From half past five we wait in a row
on the 12th of May 2016,
on the way to work some cars do pass
and I am at the Springs dental clinic
to get a chance to be treated.

At half past eight the clinic does open
and its as everybody does hurry
to the counter where you have got to wait
on a white sister
and she is rude and it's a baptism of fire

just to be able to see a dentist
and I rather want a black sister to serve me
and the dentist does not come,
she is on honeymoon
and if another is coming is a maybe.

At nine thirty a dentist does arrive
with a cloth around her head,
It's clear that she is a Muslim
and I do watch her dark-brown eyes

see no indication of any compassion,
a sister does nod with her head
and I know that it's meant for me
and I walk into the dentistry
do sit down on a black chair

and I am injected
while the dentist is deciding on a treatment,
she takes a massive pair of pliers
and I see that some pain is coming
and I need to leave

but the wisdom tooth does pain
and I want the pain to stop
and she does move the teeth
until sweat does break out on her forehead.

The dentist does complain
that the x-ray machine does not work
and she is limited to her experience,
the white sister complains when I do move my tongue
and the Indian doctor is strong

and she breaks two wisdom teeth in their sockets
while the white sister does run around
and around the black chair,
now I have got twice as much pain
and she struggles with a sharp prong
and are downhearted.

It's Thursday and I must return on Monday,
I get Panado for the pain and I am astonished,
on Monday another doctor does prod with a prong
and writes in a letter to a hospital
that I had arrived with broken teeth at the clinic

and after a lot of pain and a prayer
I am treated free of charge
by a white dentist at Medicross
and he comes to my aid.