We want your heart to function at its best.
Bisoprolol’s a helpful little pill (lol)
and aspirin’s a friend. You’re less impressed,
it seems, by side-effects of Ramipril
but the cough may pass. Any chesty pains?
Squirt GTN under your tongue. It’s droll
how nitro-glycerin expands the veins
and arteries. As for Lansoprazole,
undoubtedly protecting your digestion
from anti-platelets such as Prasugrel,
yes, take it. Eplerenone is my suggestion
as best antagonist. Won’t you pop that in,
O protagonist? And zap LDL
for sure before you snore—Atorvastatin.

*****

Helena Nelson writes: “After a heart attack, I was fitted with a stent in one cardiac artery and prescribed eight drugs, though one was optional (the GTN spray) and another only for the first six months (Prasugrel). I struggled to remember their names and purposes, so I put them in a sonnet, and as much about them as I could manage. LDL is so-called ‘bad cholesterol’. Bisoprolol is a beta-blocker and helps regulate blood pressure. Eplerenone is an aldosterone antagonist (this supposedly helps keep the heart muscle in shape). Make of that what you will. As they say on FaceBook, ‘it’s complicated’.”

Helena Nelson runs HappenStance Press (now winding down) and also writes poems. Her most recent collection is Pearls (The Complete Mr and Mrs Philpott Poems). She reviews widely and is Consulting Editor for The Friday Poem.

Illustration: “San Antonio Dr. Julio Palmaz and Schatz invent balloon expandable heart stent” by gunaxi is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.