[Vulgar]

The Different Tribe


'Irregular' folks congregated to send off their own
Sushranthan the Surgeon, who originally came 18 years ago
A man with opal-colored, shriveled teeth, no eyebrows or eyelashes
Disfigured nose. Burdens of affliction he carried, on par with Atlas
The liminal spaces his townspeople occupied could coax some pity
They were a leper colony, isolated from the coastal city
“Why is he leaving?” they'd ask. His wife, Yushran was puzzled too…
Why would a person so disfigured, so unfit to function in society
return to Agatti Island to seek board and room?
He had told them, “I’m only curious. A bit homesick.”
But when Sushranthan’s canoe landed ashore, his heart dipped.
Cadavers on wheelbarrows and graves half-dug
A plague had come to his hometown, its scythe covered in blood.
He’d suffered enough, and although he appeared as a walking corpse
Now ‘his kind’ were the new normal -
he planned to rejoin society henceforth
But first, surgical assistance would be needed for the victims
A gravedigger led him to the hospital and he learned about the symptoms
He was given a mask to wear, tools, a saw to amputate infected limbs
and saw some of his patients to the end. Others recovered again.
He spoke to a dying man with a bandaged eye, who asked:
"We sent your kind to places far away, but you came back. Why?"
Sushranthan replied:
"I care less about risk of infection. Especially from those I'm banished by."