62 to 67 - A Life Completely Changed. A Student's Lament

Healing soothing calming it seemed
Was my life’s purpose and main stay

   Med school in sixty two, a deceptive gilded doorway

   In my innocent years of 22, from posh C7 boys   
   I’d slip away                
                      

In their eyes, I was invisible,

While I was truly in awe
 Of this strange mix in the crucible,
 Where we’ll spend five years or more

 To most the Block was heavenly bliss

  Not withstanding biochem, anatomy and phys
We sat bemused and enthralled

While Profs Koch, Hoover and Carlo installed

Facts stranger and stronger than fiction,
Blurred but encased in good diction!

Lab experiments in an hour

But can we go first to the tea bar?
Counting money like a kid
(It’s for the whole week, this quid)

The best part was ‘Block Dance’ yearly

J brothers, songs, nothing went waste
We loved the music and acts clearly
Although some jokes were not in good taste

3^rd MB and we were all ‘eyes and ears’

Composed and listening to Path Cooray
All Through our youthful years
We took in Inflammation, Gangrene and Decay

Prof Fernando showed forensic skills

Chappy’s bacteria played havoc
While Pharmo Prof’s new chemical drills
In our minds ran amok

In our brains was there space?

For ward classes on hip joint and knee?
In this Path, Bact,Pharmo haze
First Change to Superman, and see!

The next two years were a blessing

With need to do only surgery and medicine
That included all you ever wanted to know
But were afraid to ask

For in Medicine it’s the brain you use and in Surgery?

The hands to do the task!

The final exams at last appear
We wish we were never born
There’s a heavily charged atmosphere
Best laid plans tattered and torn

Oh those days of nervous anticipation

A cherished dream or was it a nightmare?
We were in suspended animation
Looking back, did we really care?

The Day is here when results are due
Most celebrate but for a few
Things have gone a bit awry
(For someone stood between him and his dowry!)

Good bye, farewell, Good Luck, Sleep well!

We are all in the Seventh Heaven
For it’s here! The year Sixty Seven
We’ve since had a life of Fantasia
Whether in LK, UK, Ca or Australia

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A humble offering by a batch ‘inmate’ of the Class of 62

Zita Perera Subasinghe