Emaciate

Emaciate..it's a verb..

"to make or become extremely thin, especially as a result of starvation...

TB/HIV...

she's younger then me..she has children, the youngest is 14..he comes every Saturday and Sunday to sit by her bed and beg her to "please take your medication mom....please, so you won't die..." It's still a fight...

Her mother comes to wash her each morning...her mother's not well so this week i make it my job...
"lave, Miss?"... "wash, Nurse?"

oxygen off..she'll be ok for a short while without it...I go to lift her from the bed...skin and bones...

I might break her....

short, slow walk to the showers...past all the patients, sitting, waiting to see the Dokte...
 "will that be me one day?" must go through their minds...
"surely not..."

Spigot that is the "shower" leaks continuously...
undress..disrobing of urine soaked clothes..no one to help her get up and pee into the bucket that sits beside her bed...
sit on 3 half concrete blocks in the corner...lowering her gently..no cushioning to speak of

standing in the water in my running shoes I glance down at this women...this mother...
take the bucket, fill it and run it over the skin and bones...

just cruel...

no energy to wash...gently over the bones...rinse....

"encore"

"again"

the water must feel good...

lift her to standing...lifting a bag of flour takes more effort....

sad...

walk past the waiting area...getting more full of people waiting to see the doctor..
"regade a li"... "look at her"...does she hear them..
probably not, she's too focused on getting back to her bed where she will lay all day

...making herself extremely thin....

Emaciate...
wrong....