poem
Two MenOne man withdrew from lifeFalling ever deeper into An alternative reality entirelyOf his own makingHe never left his desk, the Responsibilities of creation Being so onerous What no one else could seeFor him was most robust Another man turned outwardAway from his own roilingInconsequentiality and embraced The entirety of this physical world Made friends and loversUsed and discarded objectsTouched everything he could get his hands onBut never came home to his now empty houseHe had become no oneExcept for what remained Of the world without him Both men were extremely u...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - April 14, 2024 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
EclipseThe universe has an announcement Everyone gathers to listenFrom my vantage pointIt sounds like: have a cashewWhich can ’t be rightMust have missed itSolar eclipsed itWhatever it wasIt probably rhymes With you4/11/24 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - April 11, 2024 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
IthacaOnce I finally left the islandOf Calypso the highway became an endless Series of off-ramps and mergingsEach exit sign an indecipherable medleyOf directional words — North and south, east and westFuture and past, here or now —All mixed up in inexplicable combinations That made no geographical sense The GPS on my phone showedOnly a red dot moving alongA single black line relative to nothing elseWhich is the definition Of going nowhere fast Time lysed itself from spaceWhile space moved on to whatever comes after time Three minutes allegedly elapsedAccording to the digit...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - April 6, 2024 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
PrecipitationMost precipitation begins as snowWhen it falls, it either stays That way or melts.Sleet is when it tries to freezeAgain but runs out of time.Rain is just rain —Irrevocable wetness.Snow is the unchangedOriginal form. We can all be as soft As when we were bornBefore we knew what it meantTo be cold4/2/24 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - April 2, 2024 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
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A History of AnxietyThe ER wanted me to admit the patient to my service. Young, otherwise healthy male with appendicitis. No medical problems except for a history of anxiety. Anxiety? I asked. Is he anxious right now? Well yes, Dr. Parks, I just told him you would be his operating surgeon. Better admit him to psych then, I said. His sigh whistled through the phone like a sirocco wind. I just mean that feelings are weird. Your mom or your pet dies and you ’re sad and that’s ok, everybody understands. But if you’re sad all the time, for no particular reason, you now have a history of sadness. Which doesn’t seem...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - April 2, 2024 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
EasterSometimes I remember the world is just a mirror showing me my real face. The sunrise my eyes. Clouds my hair. Birds my fingertips feeling the wall for a light switch in the dark. Cars zooming on the highway like erythrocytes rushing to deliver everything they have to whatever needs it. God is the face on the other side of the two way mirror looking at me. He touches his birds with divine hands. Brushes the clouds from the sky. Discovers a vast arboreal wilderness now lashed with arteries of blood. If I focus properly — really pay attention— I get this unsettling feeling of being watched. I stare into the mi...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - April 2, 2024 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
TransientIn every moment there is a fleetingTruth, unnamed but always feltBy the time it is describedEverything has changed And the narrative no longer holdsWords just falsify What was once real Books, chronicles of myth History, a kind of mourningFor everything lost Every biography is resurrectionWithout the transubstantiationHeaven is a fairy taleWith lots of good lessonsBut it gets boringListening to it before bedEvery single nightWe all know how it ends:Everything you ’ve ever wantedEveryone you ’ve lovedPluraling into eternityWhere ’s the fun in that?Maybe that ’s why there’s n...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 26, 2024 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
The Un-Operative NoteI was not on call. I did not meet the 58 year old school teacher on her worst day. We did not review the films or a treatment plan. We did not discuss the risks and benefits of operative intervention. I did not drive in at 3 in the morning, half conscious, blasting the Strokes to wake the f. up. I did not make that vertical midline incision. Nor was I there to suction out a liter of foul contamination. I did not place those sutures to close the hole in her gut. It wasn ’t my decision to place a drain under the liver. I did not speak to the husband. Or console the teary eyed daughters who...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 25, 2024 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Broken HomeDivorce is Wednesday nights at Villas For pizza and all you can drink cokesAsking Dad for another quarterTo stick in the table side jukeboxSo I can listen toFunkytownAnd Another One Bites the DustIt ’s drawing pictures of your new stepmomWith horns coming out of her headAnd flames for hair It ’s getting in big trouble forCracking an egg on the skullOf your toddler half brother.It ’s calling Dad collect on his birthdayBecause Mom didn ’t get a child support check. Divorce is figuring out ridesTo weeknight baseball practice. It ’s hearing the phrase “broken home”And realizin...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 18, 2024 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Ancillary AdvantagesAncillary advantages of an answerlessExistence are made manifestIn the margins between questionsAnd the ever expanding silences —Very frustrating —but then it gets boring,Your mind wanders off, gets lostIn the rescissions of reasons.You start to toss stones through the moonAnd listen for the tiny plinkingsOn the other side of the galaxy..You think how lucky we are ChristCame around in the era when CrucifixionWas the standard mode of execution.If it had been the 19th centuryWe ’d all be wearing necklaces Of some poor limp Savior dangling Crooked-necked from a hangman ’s noose.At some po...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 18, 2024 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Jeffrey ParksI ’ve figured out JeffHe ’s got a chip on his shoulder The size of the moonHe loves you like The perfect weighted blanket.He puts himself on ledgesWhere, if he loses balance,Somebody else falls.He loves you like An ancient earthquake A thousand miles awayThat tremors the wine glassHalf sipped on your coffee table, right now.He believes in unzipping himselfTo prove there ’s nothing Inside except for what you put there.He chews quickly Because taste is a luxury.He considers lonelinessThe apogee of human connection.He ’s an idiot, a fool,A mystic in a dark caveSaving al...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 12, 2024 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
OnceTrees un-leavedNaked in the stillness Of frosted dawn,That old complacent wisdom —Winter passing, the coming of springBuds like curled fists.Birds returning to their nestsEvery winter we shiver A little bit longer.Hoarfrost whiskers our bones We slouch. We wither.Hips snap. We slip.Exhaust our listOf foolish gambits.Spring has passedAnd doesn ’t come back We bloom only onceThen hunt for blankets3/11/24 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 11, 2024 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
In the Conservatory with a CandlestickEvery moment is a lit matchFlickering in a dark roomSome gray February morningMenaced by strange winter thunder.Getting older is running out of matchesBurning each one down To the absolute nubSearing thumb and forefinger.Every iteration of old selfIs huddled somewhere in a quietEnglish conservatory Waiting to get murdered.All you hear is the sound of matches strikingAgainst strips of powdered glass Rapid at first and then spaced out In ever wider intervalsLike popcorn left too long in the microwave.It dusks and then gets darker and darkerAs everyone begins to ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 11, 2024 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
A Different Kind of PainAfter the surgeryThe pain you used to have Will be goneBut something still remains —A different kind of painHere in the places Where I had to wound youTo heal you.3/4/24 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 4, 2024 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Passive VoiceLimbs were amputated An artery spurtedAnd had to be ligatedWounds were stapledSkin had been scorchedScreams were heard Children were orphanedInfants experienced starvationBuildings became rubbleThose living received a deathExplosions occurredExplosions occurredSoon the screamingWas no longer heard No one was leftTo speak for the silenceThat remained3/4/24 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 4, 2024 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
