painkiller

doctor
asked it for it's symptoms so he could prescribe it a prescription,
but it couldn't summon any english words to describe it's affliction
moot point since the trials and tribulations of its existence were immune to penicillin,
so it slumped off the bench, and left.
and the doctor scarcely had time to wonder what could steal the sheen from it's steel grey eyes
alive with life, once, before the buzzer sounded and the next patient coughed past it in a sterile hallway.

"excuse me" he breathed.

pushed past a path mined with people preoccupied with the trivial in order to keep them from remembering what it knew to be true.

whats for dinner tax return pick up the kids play golf on sunday buy a new car buy a new smell buy a new house and buy a new life buy a new wife from thailand stay inside the white lines read the road signs right readjust the white lines in my ears so i separate myself from all

this.

ring ring, it pushed the pharmacy door open. florence nightingale gawps from the wall. it wondered if she ever felt the moral conflict of saving nearly dead men so they could return to the task of deading or nearly-deading other nearly dead men.
any left over flown home were greeted with forgetful governments, disrespectful future generations and piss-poor pensions. but at least they could ride the bus for free. in their old uniforms which gave a sense of id thinly concealed by the illusion of service. what purpose does a soldier have in peace time.
they probably hated florence.

anadin extra. new and improved. much better than the last one apparently.
well, it would have to be. otherwise why would you buy the more expensive one.
it seems to be ok if it is more expensive if it is better.
unfortunately for the most part, the consumer is ill-equipped to be able to tell the difference.
it assumes there's going to be a limit to how effective a painkiller can be. at which point the marketing department has a moral dilemma on it's hands.
"new and improved", or "same as before"..?

"do you need any help sir"
more of a 'hurry up and buy' statement than an actual question.
it did need help. but it wouldn't find it here. there's no pain relief in sight when life is a tv-channel-static migraine.

the energy efficent bulb like the one it got free from bt in its head it buzzed on. with weary realisation, it finally found a way to cope, and for much cheaper than it ever thought. in fact so much so it left instructions in a note.
some scribbled hope on paper for those who shared its sentiment and wished to follow suit.
£2.82. for 1m of rope, 75p for a stool.