poem
A Better WorldWe ’re always trying to make the world a little better.Anytime we find ourselves someplace that seemsJust a little off, the faintest whiff of a sad vibe,I do this thing where I get down on a kneeAnd propose to you Right there in front of everyone.Nobody knows the truthBut it always seems to lift the mood,Softens some faces the waySpontaneous gestures and actionsRemind that love is not an abstraction.Lately it seems I ’m always on my knees.So much sadness everywhere.But I notice you ’re no longer there with me.It even stopped working on you —I guess it lost its charm.It ’s just me offering...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 15, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
A Kind of AdultWe spend an extraordinary amount of effortTrying to become the kind of adult we thinkWe needed as a kid but never really hadTaking note of all the waysYou felt let downBy old mom and dad Meanwhile your own kid is watching, plotting,Formulating ways of evolving into a future selfWho is better in all the ways you are notFull of all the things you lackYou ’re better off burning your notesNot trying so hardLetting go by staying putWhen your hear your boy talkingStop what you ’re doing,Look him in the eye and listen.Recognize when he wants you To just sayI don't knowEven when you have the answ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 14, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Op Note XXThe abdomen was opened and the target organs identified. The residents seemed competent, briskly moving hands, confident stances. I felt the urge to take a leak so I scrubbed out for a while. When I returned the nurses asked my glove size. Someone hissed, you ’re supposed to get your own gloves. I was positioned in a tiny nook under the patient ’s arm pit and told to lift up. The retractor kept slipping. Like this, someone barked. I leaned back and toed the hoe-like tool into the split flesh. We all heard the cracking noises. The ribs! Someone exclaimed.&nbs...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 12, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
The ImmortalsIn the palace of Borges ’ ImmortalsNothing made any architectural sense.Staircases narrowed to triangular pointsDarkened corridors dead-endedInto cinder block walls The basement was just a voidThat fell to the center of the earthCeilings were on the floorAnd the floors, well, they wereJust a certain kind of ceiling.Tiny trap doors opened into cathedral-likeDining halls. Arching gilded portals Led to monkish hovels barelyLarge enough for a cot. As I wanderedThese grounds I came upon an idea,A train of thought that seemed to makeSense of it all. In the following lines I will attemptTo conv...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 9, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
BeautifulSome people are beautiful Only when they smileOthers seem loveliestWhen wracked with sorrowI used to thinkYou could only be one or the other;The one who looks at the cameraOr the one who turns away.We all let down our guard at some pointShow the thing we think is sacred Some let you take what you wantFor as long as you likeOthers will only let you borrow I don't know what I amI refuse to inhabit a faceMy smiles are subterfuge I look ridiculous when joyousAnd wrecked when I cryThere are two rational responses to all this .One is to say that everyone is always beautifulBut it takes a lifeti...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 9, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Names, Numbers We chop up time into chunksEither named or enumerated.Seconds and minutesAre simply numbered.Hours are a little strangeMostly a rotating set of integersExcept for noon and midnightDawn and duskMorning and eveningTwilight and half light.The days get their own namesHonoring the pagan gods of yoreBut weeks are just weeksSorting themselves into blocks of monthsWhich are kind of funny too —A mashup of names and numeralsAs if Caesar ran out of things to acclaimMore than half way throughAnd just finished it off at the end With a few Roman ordinals.But then the years are backTo being just numbersSt...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 7, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
BirdsongMy favorite birdsong in the morning Goesfwipp, fwipp, fwipp, fwipp, fyooouuYou don't even know what I ’m Talking about, do you?You ’re not hereIn my frosted dawn.If you heard it you ’d probably Spell it differently, Maybe you ’d hear an “r”Between the “f” and the “w”.That ’s all we’re doing hereWriting poemsChasing after winds Trying to stop time.We listen, we pay attentionThen try to get some of it downAll the world is just birdsong,Beautiful sounds happeningInside our own heads.Maybe I can get you to start listening tooWho knows what you ’ll hearMaybe somet...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 1, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
DancingI just want to hold you againWe ’ll put on some music And call it dancingTurn off the furnaceAnd call it cuddlingWatch a sad movie togetherAnd call it comfortingTrade in the king for a twinAnd call it spooningI ’d love to spend a lifetimeThinking of ways Of putting my arms around you That ’s why I keep leavingWe call it saying goodbye 5/1/22 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 1, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Dead SpringIn my spring nothing growsLeafless trees splay Across the sky As frazzle headed wicks Of burned down candles Too smoked to know they ’re dead No grass needs mowedNo buds or bloomsIt ’s a season bereft of color—At least of any that I can see.I only know it ’s springBy the shift in the wind But no matterSoon it will be sweltering summerEverything moist and stickyThe drone of beesAnd crabgrass and weedsEveryone just gives up and sweatsFanning themselves on screened porches Too languorous to utter a single word I look forward to the fallThe ferrousfeuille morte e...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - April 26, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Op Note XIXThat ’s not the liver, I told the resident, and that’s not the spleen. The resident squinted his eyes over his mask at me. What do you mean, he queried. It must be so. Both anatomically and in the morphologic sense it appears we have happened upon structures highly suggestive of. He was a high performer. He knew his books cold. I just laughed. You ’ve never been here before, have you? Not like this. This is your first time. In here we are gods. Here, things have no names. There was a tight flurry of action and change on the screen.&nbs...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - April 24, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Unexpected Full MoonIt ’s March and I didn't expectAn early morning full moonHanging there fat and lowJust above the road A swirl of salmon coralIn the near expired nightAn unripe peach or oneOf Jupiter ’s lesser moons It ’s easy to forget our moonNever turns its back,Steadfast though darkened by day The selfless sentry watching over usLike forgotten Prometheus Eternally pecked by scavengersIts sad pocked face weeping mascaraReflecting whatever light it seesStreaming over our shouldersLike a sad lost parent Who must smile When his child Does something banal Showing ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - April 24, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
NowNow is only for nowNot to be the fulcrumUpon which yourPast pivots into futureNor the portal throughWhich the wasBecomes your will Just nowThe vantage pointThat conjures both Everything lostAnd all to be gainedInto a tentative existence 4/24/22 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - April 24, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Burn OutOn call all the timeCan ’t remember the last dayI didn ’t go into the hospitalI think 21 days in a row Now, not sure, the suns and moonsRunning together you stop caringAbout the day, the time So much about yourselfAnd then everything elseExcept for the task at hand;An abscess to lanceA port to placeLeft colon to mobilize The perfectly arrayed meshNo before or afterEverything distilled down To the timeless immediacy Slicing my daysInto bracketed sliversEvery incision only happening nowThere are unintended side effects Of course, emotional detachmentDisengagement, psychic...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - April 19, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Easter PoemIn his own particular heartGutei knew the fundamentalMeaning of Zen as a single raised finger.When his attendant attemptedTo convey this idea to a pilgrimGutei sliced off the poor boy ’s fingerAnd asked him the old question once again:What is the meaning of Zen?And when the boy spontaneouslyTried to raise his missing fingerHe became truly enlightened.This weekend, when we ask the meaning Of Easter we look to the crossAnd see a man suffering for our sins But the meaning of the ChristianKoan is the emptiness of a tomb,An abandoned shroud tossedHaphazardly on a dusty slab,A quaternion of soldiers ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - April 17, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Deep DiveIt ’s possible to read too muchTo dive too deepInto impenetrable texts To attempt to wrap your mindToo widely around A set of fundamental truths A certain breadth Of knowledge ruins thingsYou start to realize that The intricate architecture of snowflakes Can always be melted down Into shapeless blobs of rainThat a full moonIs just a glimmer Of all the lightWe nightly turn fromThat the skyIs not really blueJust an illusionOf photonic scatteringIt ’s easy toOverthink it all.One morningI wake upConvinced I ’m noLonger in love with you.So I go back to basics —A mut...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - April 16, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
