Paul J Penton – Songwriter

Doctor Doctor give me the news

Dentist

Went to see Doctor Danny
about my teeth
why put it off?
almost been a year and a half
I was meant to see him this time last year
for my six monthly
but I got the call to remind me
and I was in Adelaide
and it just was never a priority
but something kept eating away at me
and I did it
and it was fine
just the standard scale and clean
that little drill that claws at the edges of your teeth
where they meet the gums
occasional spike s of sensation by way of pain
but purely temporary
assessment of no fillings
a rinse for a minute with the fluoride treatment
so I was free after 20 minutes
I enquired about teeth whitening
the $ 500 special
just for me
I’ll consider it

Chadstone

So ‘I’ve an hour and bit to fill
before the next appointment
and I drive to Chadstone
surely by now
it IS the largest shopping center
in the Southern Hemisphere
I get their and go in gateway 1 to find it’s blocked off
of course they’re doing more extensions
so I’m railroaded to an uppers storey car park
and take a few minutes to find a spot
maybe I should just give up
no
I’m on mission
lunch at my favorite chicken bar beckons
I descend some steps and drift through David Jones
through the welcoming sights and smells of the ladies cosmetics department
with beautiful painted ladies
displaying the best lipsticks and foundations
from their
chosen product lines
ready to explain
the benefits and disadvantages of one thing over another
and to make you a
‘one time only offer’

I make it through and hover on marbled floors
one storey up
transported across rows of apparel
looking down on the lower walkway
and all its tantalising offers
30% off today only!
etc
The escalator deposits me gracefully on the food court level
I walk through taking in the various smells of
Chinese and Italian
Japanese and Korean
it’s a world of food here
I see a man and woman in the midst of the tables
who look like they’re courting
or doing that thing that pigeons do
sort of cooing to each other in body language
I move straight through heading for the chicken bar
that I will not name
the one I wouldn’t mind to own If I had a spare 500 K

To keep aligned with my diet plan
I’m thinking it’s a salad to go with the chicken
but when I enquire about the price
I’m knocked back by the accountant inside
$13.50
for a chicken salad!
I can do better than that!
I storm back toward the food court
my outrage distilling and then disarmed
by playful kittens in the window at pets world
there’s three of them on the ground floor completely asleep legs stretched at ridiculous angles
soft grey stripey tummies
and serenity on their faces

I scan the food court looking for options
a chicken and avacado gets my attention
with orange juice I start to wolf ,
but then I get something crunchy in my teeth
a piece of unwashed spinach perhaps –
I let it pass
then another and another
should I take it back?
should I complain?
no I’ll just work around it
but maybe next time
I won’t be the nice guy
I’ll have changed

The clock gets close to two
so I leave for my next medical meeting

Cardiologist

Looking for consulting room fifty
down three or four sets of echoing corridors
and the trail runs dry,
backstep and realise I missed a turn
into a light filled corridor full of much older people
have I got he right place?
I check on the wall
a whole load of names
in Greek and Russian
and there’s my man.
I enter the reception area
I’m greeted by Amanda
who’s more than ‘there’
a stripey jungle pattern top
that sits on one shoulder
and the drops to the other
she’s constantly adjusting
I wonder if the other boy in the office
is getting turned on

I shuttle outside to fill in forms
name address and date of birth
next of kin etcetera etcetera
I leave them for her while I sit and listen
to a man on mobile who’s come out of the rooms
to talk to someone about his fathers disease
we hear him explaining about the bladder
‘if he doesn’t get it done
he could die as a soon as tomorrow
but the old man’s stubborn and doesn’t believe
doesn’t want to be seen inside a hospital
just like my old man
and here I now am in the grip of the machine
maybe it makes sense of those outrageous premiums

this fellow on the phone
he doesn’t realise he’s the entertainment
who magazines for June 2008 don’t compare with what we can hear
quite plainly form the other end of the corridor
all these old sick people
are tuning into his radio station
and I start to get lost in a cloud of concerns
over all the things
that have been happening
this tickling spider inside my heart
the elephant visits in the middle of the night
how they sit on my chest and constrict my breathing
and I can’t see that I’m doing anything different
to what I’ve always done
maybe now I’m on holiday
what I took to be stress
‘is manifesting
as some sort of disease
and it is
its’ dis- ease
An elderly lady comes out quickly
followed by stripey Amandal who mentions her surname
‘my ears prick up at the mention’
of it-the same as a former girlfriend
I surreptitiously peak
but the old woman doesn’t remind me of who I think she should be
and perhaps its the same with me
would she remember what I looked like from 1996?
She enters into conversation
with someone she knows
who’s just walked in a
nd I hear the name of ‘Nolene’
and ‘my other daughter’
the neo-natal nurse
and I know it’s her
my how our memory can play tricks
she’s nothing like
what popped into my imagination

My name is called out
and I meet the surgeon
he seems happy and relaxed
we transit to his office where a model heart is dead on the table
he explains the meaning of the suqiggly lines
on the E.C.G
and the operation of the right ventricle
how this is a classic case
of the syndrome owned by me
W.P.W
Wolff-Parkinson-White
it seems the heart has developed another junction box
that sends a pulse via an alternative route ,
sometimes in sync
but more often not
‘which Is why I experience this jiggling spider inside me
I hope the cure does not involve swallowing a bird!
He works through the whys and wheres
and then gets to the how
I will undergo a procedure
including a mild anasthesia
I can take my I-pod if I care
but he will guide a micro fibre
through my veins
to that place where
the problem seems to emanate from
and he’ll send a pulse to asses how strong
or weak the problem is
if it’s bad he’ll kill a muscle and the problem will be solved
if not he’ll leave it

I talk about the elephants
he says he’ll ‘have a look’
at the arteries while he’s in there.
I am quite assured of the procedure
though he does mention
‘someone with a sever case
died on the table
but they bought him back to life
:’with the paddles”
hmmmm
am I ready for that?
we set up appointments
and I pay his fees and go to Medicare
for reimbursements and in two weeks
I”l be on the table
If I last that long
these elephants are starting to hang around all day long
mildly worried
after speaking to my sister
about Angina
a narrowing of the arteries
but from what I read on the internet
this usually manifests when you play sport
so why do i have it now when doing nothing
this is more than hypertension
more than stress
there’s definitely something weird going on