Regular readers (Hi, Dina!) will know already

that I am a multi- even mega-privileged parasite
upon what Americans fear most:
a 'socialist' Welfare State.
This I pondered on today
as I talked to my GP
(doctor) whom I can usually see
with only 24 hours' notice,
because he is one of the last remaining
doctors with his own practice -
just like The Good Old Days
of Respect and Contumely.
Even in France this is a rarity,
and Saint-Antonin, the too-trendy village
which I have just abandoned, has no regular GP at all
for a population of two thousand.

But O, the shabby, cheap, veneered, worn
desk with damaged corners
that he has his computer on, poor man!
My vast desk is inlaid walnut,
and came, like the fine sideboard (on the right),
together with the house:

Still, better that than be a doctor like the one I had in childhood
at his vast mahogany table, who, like my GP uncle
advised my (single) mother
to send me to a private school where I would
"have the corners rubbed off" me".