When Deceleration is Acceleration

On bumping into me, she didn’t mince
her words as if she sought to give me
a piece of her mind right on the road!

She halted, greeted me and professed:
I enjoy your poetry but please, please,
don’t tell me sickening, stifling stories
about some misguided African leaders
who promote medical tourism overseas
instead of building viable, well-equipped,
staffed, funded health institutions at home.
I want to read poems about breakthroughs.

I said: that’s fine, relax, beloved reader,
I hear there’s a little medical leap forward
as far as the slowing down of Alzheimer’s
disease is concerned, I hope this is the start
of the end for this condition, but lots of hitches
lie ahead before donanemab can be given to patients.

You will recall that it’s a disorder that has baffled experts
for ages, so its deceleration represents a medical advance.
She grinned and confessed: I was kidding, just tell it like it is!