If Symptoms Persist (Poetry)

‘If symptoms persist
consult your doctor’
now there’s good advice
or so it would seem
but just try getting

an appointment to
see him/her before
1) your condition
worsens and becomes
an emergency

or 2) the symptoms
simply go away
of their own accord
and so you end up
trying to cancel

but their phone’s always
engaged so you write
a note and drop it
round confident that
that will do the trick

Two days after the
appointment date they
write saying that you’ve
missed it. Suddenly
that damn headache’s back ...