Weekend Poem

LiceThe school sent notice of a lice alertWe were to dutifully check our children ’s heads.The kids were spooked:Tiny burrowing bugs, would it hurt?The little girl had attached a post-it note to her math bookA morning reminder in kid scrawl:wet your hair, put it in a ponytailI can spread along your pale stripe of partThe bronzed roots swished to and froLike the swaying grasses of coral reefs.Is that a nit or just last night ’s white rice?I will buy the special shampooI will scrub your scalp until it bleedsYou ’re a good little girl.You listen, you follow the rules.Hurry home from schoolDon ’t wear your best friend’s hat.Don ’t borrow that brush,Always use your own combThere ’s only so much I can doTo scratch that itchAs you trundle off through the driftsOf snow to the busDon ’t be fooled by the silence of snow;The muffled layering effectsHide the festering truth.For the living multitudes lay in waitTo strike:  To get under your skin,To grab you by your hair,This teeming world of imminent infestation,The ones you can ’t seeAnd the ones that are already there3/4/18

Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 4, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs