poem
The Prince and the PeaIt ’s clear now I’ll have to carry this thing to my grave no matter how much it drags me downHow could something so small be so heavy?I cant put it on a shelf or ask you to hold itIt has infiltrated too deep, caged in my chesta stone in my shoea stone in my shoe embedded in bone.I just know I can ' t let it go.Can ’t chuck it over a cliffwithout the rest of me following.It ’s a dead weight in the center of my being,the crucial concentrated ballast,I ’m reluctant to admit,tethering me to this poor gray world I feel it boring into me wherever I lieno matter how ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - November 13, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
AnemoneThe wind caterwauls down across the lakeSwaying the trees like sea anemonesYou think you ’re so hardBarked around a knot wood coreOf muscle and bone But it ’s all an actSure, sure that invisible howlIs the force that bendsMe toward you alone11/9/22 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - November 10, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Too Much To KnowThere are only so many things one person can knowat any one moment. No one has an infinite capacityFor photographic memory, at least not very many of us. I worry I wasted near 50 years Of neural space on fictional namesstrategies for winning silly gamesAnd other ornate schemes contrived to keep me saneUseless facts and listless lyricsto songs I don ' t even like Phone numbers and addresses to places and people I ’d rather forget I still know baseball statsof middling American Leagueinfielders (Jerry Dybzinski!) from the eighties I know combinations to lockersReeking of ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - November 10, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Non Zero Chance Math is the language of pure objectivityAnd there are three mathematical pathwaysTo understanding the nature of beingFirst, the default perspective :You can simply quantify yourself as a magnitudeYou can be five or seventeen or six thousand twenty-twoYou can multiply or add, factor out the common variables But there ’s always a higher numberSo we shed what used to give pleasureAnd grasp for ever higherFundamentally it ' s a disbelief in the concept of infinityWhich is a metaphor for " atheism "Which gives rise to the word “god”Which is the active participle of all ego Which i...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - November 2, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
PhotographSometimes in a pictureYou ’re not looking at the cameraYou ’re actually peering through the Lens, signaling to a future self idly Flipping through a stack of old photosOr scrolling through a digital albumWho will see himself frozen in a momentBrandishing a practiced look, a certain smile(One you both recognize so well)Letting him know this was the one.That everything was once okay Close to perfect evenThat trip, that celebratory dinner, that holidayThis one time, (In case you ’ve forgotten)I was happy10/30/22 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 30, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
TiredWe ’re all tired nowEvery soul worn downGnawed to the boneWe work dawn to darkWe don ' t take breaks No one notices the moon On the droned drive homeNo one believes in stars anymoreSo the constellations fall apartThey sound like needled sleetAgainst the windshield glassAll we ever do is build firesAnd melt piles of iceWe remember PrayerBut we ’re done with prayersOur knees hurtAnd we kneel for no oneBut our own noble exhaustions.Nevertheless we don ' t sleep at homeWe save sleeping for the daySo our grayed waking life becomes A dazzling bright dream We can only escapeBy falling asleep fro...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 25, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
SacrificeAn ink spilled indigo eveningEliciting icy pricked thoughts Ominously blotched,faintly evilA witch ’s carbonaceous sunset, black catted Distant but wraps its claws aroundYour neck in an instant I ’m not afraid thoughI ’m the prey wanderingNaked in the woodsHoping you ’ll choose meFor your nightly sacrificeEven that would be a blessingKnowing some seer believesI have an ultimate purposeMy shivering flesh a pale feastAnd ritualistically, at least,Not worthless Tinder to a great blazing pyreMy soul bounding betweenSkeletal trees with a herdOf dull-eyed deer 10/25/22 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 25, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
FortressesMy dad built a mansion on the oceanPilons sunk 300 feet for the foundationImpregnable to storms from the GulfUndegreed, pronounces wash “warsh”He made a life for himself He ’s proud of himselfAnd if I ever saw himI ’d tell him so myselfI built a different kind of fortressI take care of patientsI work long into the nightI am the one who suffersTo make things better for othersIf he saw me he would Tell me to stop working so hardMy little girl cut herselfWith a utility knifeBecause of a grade on a testAnd everything else.There are no fortressesWalls never lastThe hurricane is comingTo knock e...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 23, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
ConspiracyIt ’s all a cosmic conspiracy,I ’m starting to believe,Playing out in an orderly fashion.I think the sun cools into a planetAnd the Earth becomes its moonWhile nebulous dark matterSwirls in spherical intensityUntil it gathers enough energyTo flash as first dawn Everything almost livingIs far away and shining Burning down to the range of vibrancy While some nameless ancestor grandfatherIs now a small black holeExerting calculable forces from afarDrawing me closer and closer10/23/22 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 23, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
ParanoidI get a little paranoid sometimes.Sometimes it seems like the treesare all looking at mejudging me whispering in the wind along the forest edgewith soughing passivity all the things everyone else knowsI ought not to have doneAutumn quiets those whispers.I see the truth of the matteras they flash orange and yellow.Ominous jaundiced illnessHang dog looksDesperate clinging beautyA silent inchoate mourningThey ’re holding on as long as they canNot their faultProgrammed to releaseIt ’s only biologyIt feels like they ’re tryingto break it to me kindlyMaybe they desire my forgivenessMaybe they d...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 18, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
EpitaphLet ’s gather around and playA game called epitaph The object of the gameIs to choose a pithy inscriptionFor your headstone withoutUsing any names (especially your own)Or bracketed sets of numbers.How do you answer?What would you say?Something heartfelt and banal like:He loved his family and did his best?An incantation from a witch ' s curse?Maybe your favorite Bible verse?Maybe an inside joke. Something ironic. The last thing you saw, a half drunk gin and tonicI ’ve narrowed my choices down to 3:Currently not available for comment. Please check back laterDrank too much, ate too littl...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 13, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Gray DayAnother gray dayClouds sitting low and dourBut that ’s okayWe can still have funYou be the flowerAnd I ' ll be the sun10/12/22 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 12, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Hiding MoonIt was a full moon morningAlbeit obscured by taperingClouds ink-spilled across the skyLike a silhouetted witches broomLike an ingenue hiding Coyly behind her splayed fingersSeemed like such a wasteAll that dazzling deep yellow lightI wanted to see itIn all its rounded completenessI wanted to have it allIn the hour before the sun risesBut once again I missedWhat was trying to be seenLook, how eerie the lovely skyHow spectral the wispy cloudsHow generous the moon10/10/22 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 11, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
The MiserTo a certain extentThe miser is one to be pitied.Grew up poor, never had any moneyAnd now he doesn ’t know What to do with his riches.He puts it all in one placeAnd watches it.The squalor ofstacks of golden coins.He doesn ’t lend it or give any awayNor does he spend it on himself.Dresses in unfashionable ragsDisdains the pretensions of nobilityLuxury he abhorsHe drives a used FordHe hoards it for when he may need itRemembering what it feels like to need.The same could be said for the lonesome boyWho grows up to find himselfSuddenly a man, bursting at the seamWith untapped reservoirsOf unused love10/...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 11, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Honest AirThe air is crisp and cold again,Has lost its languid indeterminacy.Here, we can be honest again.No more distracting small talk,Sharing a sultry August airWarmed by our feral lungs.No more dawdling in fieldsPretending we have all summer To figure it all outHonking geese fleeingSouth, squirrels gatheringNuts, trees reclaiming their peripheral Green, a world in a rush to finish up,To store up all that ’s left Before the first frost calcifiesOur living ground to cold bone And ices to stillness the arterial flowOf our shallow brown river.Each breath now is a stinging Rebuke of fri...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 9, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
