Poem

ElementalDust and leaves swirled around my feetIn the middle of a summer cyclone.My body was buffeted but I hardly swayedFor even the wind ignores the likes of me.I went for a morning swim in the big surfOff an abandoned beach,After everyone else had joined the evacuation,But the roiling ocean refused to get me wet.When the house was burning downI doused myself in gasolineBut couldn ’t feel the heatWhile dazed gray ash fluttered against my face.In the middle of the earthquakeI was the only thing that didn ’t shakeWhile the walls all collapsedAnd the sidewalks cracked.For I was the faultAnd the eye of the hurricaneThe tenth of a degree before the flash pointI have been the empty voidThat flees just as it gets filled,The vacuum of space that existsOnly when there ’s nothing there.I am the low dark clouds that promise to make mudOf your finely raked pile of dirt.Just you wait!I ’m coming for you, to devastateThis bonhomie of false tranquility.You were the cataclysm that unmoored my ship.Our thundering hearts are just the aftershocks2/16/20

Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 16, 2020 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs