poem
Op Note XXXVIIAfter surgery she had a lot of questions. Mostly to do with eating. Can I have milk? Can I have cheese? Can I eat a salad? What about meat? Fried or grilled? When can I have nuts again? Or fruit? Ones with seeds? Bananas that are still a little green? Should I cut my carrots into dimed slivers? Popcorn without butter? Popcorn with butter? Mushrooms. Beef jerky. Cereals with marshmallows. Cereals that turn the color of the milk aquamarine. Chocolate covered cherries. Chocolate covered strawberries. Chocolate dripped into my mouth like candle wax. A hot candle next to my leg. The taste of tiramisu on a lo...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 5, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Scene IIIThe man is working on an abstract poem. He isn ’t sure what it means yet. He’s stuck. The woman is reading a recipe she found online for chicken cacciatore. She realizes she is missing one of the ingredients. But she can’t figure out which one. It will take a process of elimination, trialing the various combinations. Before starting this a rduous gauntlet of tasting, she decides to finish a puzzle she had started in the morning. None of the pieces fit. Nevertheless these are the pieces that were in the box. There are no others. She makes surprisingly efficient progress. A picture emerges from the edges...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 5, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
SleepwalkLately I have been havingExtremely busy dreamsThere is so much to doI wake up completely exhaustedAs if I hadn ’t slept at allThen the day starts and off I goThis place and then thatA series of endless tasksI get nothing accomplished at allSleepwalk in and outOf shadows hiding from the sunSaving my energy for all the work The daytime moon has left undone3/1/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 1, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Kathy -after John Lennon ' s " Julia "Every mother deserves a songWritten for her by a sonIt ’s the least we can doAfter all they ’ve given upAnd all they ’ve been through Better now than after she ’s gone Kathy was always my biggest fanShriekinggo! jeff go! as she Raced up and down the touchline Of the soccer pitch when I was sevenThat first game was my actual christening,When Iheardmy given name for the first timeAnd realized I needed to becomethat ….Couple of clarifying points:We called it a “field” back then and “sideline” Not “pitch” or “touchline”We ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 1, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
FebruaryCold drizzly February dayThe sky a gray ocean aboveWith a perforated floorThe rain falls in heavy dollopsWalloping my face and forearmsSomehow it ' s too warm for snowBut my blood has slowed to a slushI used to see myself As a roiling cumulonimbusGathering the power and strength to unleash Upon the parts of the world still unscornedBut it all just leaks out in forlorn fragmentsI meant to be the deluge that drowns But instead it ’s just death By a million heavy dropsAs we say in surgery:All bleeding eventually stops 2/28/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 28, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
RookAfter demonstrating a few basic openings I asked my son: what ' syourgambit going to be?What will you give up up nowTo gain an advantage later?He said he ’d give up the KingBecause he was pretty much done Hanging out with dad and ready for someScheduled online gaming with friends Of course this meant I was the KingWho succumbs to an early regicideOn the other hand it meant that I washisKingSuch is the timeless quandary of our dynamicAfter he left I sat for a while with the boardRealizing I ought to answer my own questionFor it ' s never too late to take a few chances I ’ll let you have the...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 26, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
RoundsWhen I ’m on rounds I barge into your roomGet up close and personalInvade your spaceAsk you a bunch of intimate questionsLift up your gownPalpate and prodDoes it hurt hereHow about thisHave you shit yetDoes it burn when you peeWhat’s that on your legHas it always been thereHas it changedWhat about your faceThis mark hereThis subtle asymmetryWho’s that in the pictureDid a child draw this dinosaur thing with a human head on this cardDid you take your medicineAre you happy with my careWhat do you fear the mostDo you believe this all gets betterDo you hear the tiptoes of deathDid I do a good jobDid I let you ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 26, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Op Note XXXVII didn ’t have a choice. One of those stem to stern incisions. All of her spilled right out. The assistant ballasted escaping guts while I suctioned out all the blood. Had to inspect every square inch. The things we saw that day. Whoo boy. At least I ’ve never seen anything like that. Not kidding. Shredded from the inside like a scythe. Couple cans of spilled paint candy caning together in spiraling maroon/purple swirls. Had to patch every hole. Cut out the unsalvageable. Held pressure on all the rest. The next day she was somehow doing better . Extubated. But in a bad way. Basically just a hea...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 24, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
The Mystery of SufferingThe old lady wasn ’t any better in the morning. She’d need to go to surgery. I gave her the straight dope; rationale, risks and benefits, alternatives etc. She received the news with fender bender equanimity. Folded her glasses in her lap. Smiled pleasantly. I trust what you say, doctor.Resigned to her fate. On her nightstand was a religious pamphlet opened up to a page entitled “The Mystery of Suffering”. Pain isn’t a mystery. We know how that works. C fibers and spinothalamic tracts and things of that nature. Straight biology. Teleologically we also know why: so old Kronk, the...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 22, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Poem #45Do you know that feeling when you finish a poem and you think you may have busted out a banger and it ’s cool as hell for a while, you ' re proud of yourself, you finally did it, you may have made something original and halfway decent for once, something someone else will read and perhaps be moved. But after a few weeks you start to waver. You lose confidence. Was it really any good? Sometimes you never read it again. Afraid to find out it really is shit. You missed the mark and there ’s no quick fix. This is what happened to God. He isn’t dead. He made the world as a beautiful poem and then started to ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 20, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Courage is a Dead CurrencyIn this country courage is a dead currencyNo longer a legal tenderAccepted in any reputable storesIts coins and banknotes are counterfeit Try slipping a Canadian quarter In the vending machineAnd nothing happens. No guttural rumbleNo churning of inner gearsNothing falls. The slot remains emptyNo matter how hard you pound the red fa çadeThere ’s nothing we can do to stop itSo many of us have exhausted ourselvesSuffering the years to accumulateNow worthless little mounds of green billsLittle nest eggs to draw onWhen the time came to be brave Some hold on to it, hoping it come...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 19, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Space Between Low gray prison mattress Sky slowly sinking.It gets claustrophobicThe longer you ’re out here. Crawlspace JanuaryReptile wet and gaspy Naked treesCachectic menArms like broken sticksPleading for mercy. Pretty soon I ’m prone On the groundLopping up the lastFew molecules of oxygen I ’ve got left and it’s here, justBefore the terminal blackout,Where I feel it. The truth. The trusted earth rushingUp toward the clouds.It was the earth all alongThronging to fill my lungs With its dirt.2/16/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 16, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
The WellWe all have a deep well of loveSupposedly, even meOr so I once allegedI dug it myself Scratched it out of the earthWith my fingernails Choked in the depthsOf its toxic fumesFed on the wormsThat sipped at its sourcePropped the shaft With brick and back Until I tapped Into a vast aquifer A fragile hollow bone Heavy with sweet nectarOnly then did I climb outBeside it I still lieThe sound of its watersDripping back into itselfAs it falls from its wallsOf black stone deep downIn a darkness of my own Is romance enough for me I never lower the bucket anymoreAfraid m...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 14, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Scene IIOne prepares a pot of morning coffee For the other, who just wants a cup of teaLater on, she pulls a steaming Tray of cinnamon crusted muffinsFrom the oven for the personWho ’d give anything for a plateOf fried eggs and baconAs for him, he ’s busy arranging A trip to the mountains for the girlWho never told a soul About her dizzying fear of heights Let ’s clean the kitchen, she saysTo the man who came from dirtDo you know how much I love you?Is parried by a nodding assent From the man who believesLove ought to be hoarded Like bars of gold in Fort KnoxIn order to ever f...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 13, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
WokenIn this dream I ’m startled from sleepBy the sounds of someone crying Curled next to me in a bedI don ’t check to see who it isNot because I ’m callous But because, by the law of dreams,The dreamer already knows So I roll over and fall back to sleep,Into another dream, one where nowI am the one sobbing, maybeBecause there ’s no oneNext to me in bed andIt ’s cold and the blankets are thinAnd the old house creaksAnd there ’s no one in the room to hear,To take pity on me, caress me, And the nightstand is avalanchedBy stacks of unread books.The only thing to do nowIs to cry myself to sleepT...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 4, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
