poem
 Kleck Blot-after Justinus Kerner The cloudy indigo sky of the morningWas a Rorschach blot demandingInterpretation before I couldStart my hospital roundsIf you see a camel Wandering the shores of Lake ErieIt means you ’re a psychopathJust turn around and go back home If you perceive a zebra mounting your motherFrom behind take a bow, doff your capIt means your mind is half stripedHalf strappedAs for those other cloudsAvert your eyes from the billowingDress that shows too much when You stare too long at the liquid sunCall yourself from a burner phoneAsk to meet for lunchAnd then ghost him Lik...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - November 14, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs

poem
 StardustNo, we ’re not stardustDon ’t be so sentimentalBest to consider it debrisScattered by a violent Primordial explosion,Gunpowder residue, shrapnelCutting through space. Once, we didn ’t need time.There was nowhere to goNowhere else to be Only a singular awarenessOf wordless perfection.But it wasn ’t enough.Look what we ’ve doneSince — got all riled upSpread out and then collided.Now we hide in the undercarriagesOf strategically parked carsLike ticking time bombs11/14/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - November 14, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs

poem
 George and HelenLet ’s wake up every morning and be someone elseI ’ll name you and once you ' re comfortableYou can call me whatever you want Before sunset we burn our ID cardsOur portraits and family photosMelt down our trophies and jewelries Eat every morsel of all our kids Spend the night Dancing drinking f.ingLike animals under the stars Fall asleep dementedIt isn ’t so badThe next day we get to do it all over again “Good morning Jessica”“Good morning Brad”11/14/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - November 14, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs

poem
 BreadcrumbsAt this stageWe are breadcrumbsTracing a pathThrough the forestFrom wherever we areNow back to a place Once called homeThe birds are eitherNot hungryOr all dead  The witch is eatingChicken cacciatoreAnd the dad Has sold his axTo pay his child support We ’re left wondering:Is there any bread leftOr did he use the entire loaf?11/7/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - November 7, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs

poem
 LighthouseNow I ’m a lighthouseWith a burned out lampWatching ship after shipCrash against my crags.I have become kitschIntractably useless A prop for family vacation pics.We ’re only a few weeks from The first winter freeze When northern seas Can ’t be sailed  But that ’s no solace.I was meant to shineSo someone could findThe way to safe harbors.No one has ever seenMy vast and wild interiorAn undiscovered countryOf dark forests and fertile plainsUnfurling to distant mountainsNow no one will.I face the waterWith all that at my back.Even I have failedTo fully explore my own lands&...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - November 5, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs

poem
 AnchorLoneliness is the anchorTethering me hereTo these ravaged lands In the epochOf violent storms. One end of the braided ropeFollows the weight of the ironTo the bottom of a deep trenchWhile the other is attached to no boat.Everything in betweenAccelerates       like love And saws through my hands11/5/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - November 5, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs

poem
 MaturityThe trouble with growing up —“becoming a man”is realizing There was always a little boyliving inside youBut the second you see himHe diesand you have to bury him. Which is why every new man  has the same drawn   lookof someone just come coming from a funeral 11/5/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - November 5, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs

poem
 Op Note XLIOur diagnosis was never in doubt. It was the definitive treatment that remained elusive. Knowing the well-described occasional efficacy of placebo interventions we offered the patient a procedure of last resort. We were down to our last couple of bullets. A proposition strictly in the experimental stages, we told her. A double blinded study. But what other choice did we have? Unbeknownst to her it was a sham surgery. Nothing would be fixed, nothing cut out. We termed it her “special procedure”, as if she were a child being told that grandma was “only sleeping”. We reviewed the risks and benefits, t...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 24, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs

poem
 LexiconWhen we first met we were inarticulate.Words fell from our lips like the clothes Of lovers strewn across the floorOn the way down the hall to the bedroomLove was a sock I lost under the coversDesire a belt that the dog carried off I keep finding purple barrettes under my pillows Arranged in the strange configurationsOf a sacred lost lexicon.While I ’m sleeping they whisperWords only I can decipher 10/24/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 24, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs

poem
 Opposite of the OppositeIn the dualist worldOf interdependent meaning Love is the only wordWithout an opposite.Its absence leavesNothing behindNo sadness to embrace When joy inexplicably expiresNo half moon to brood uponWhen the sun sets until morning.It ’s our own hate We pour in To fill the void When it ’s gone.Carried to a logical conclusionOne sees that love lacks evenThe opposite of its own oppositeWhich is why I struggle to say it Whenever I most feel it And everyone hates that10/23/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 23, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs

poem
 The River ChagrinThe river made the sound of audible Bleeding as it cascaded down levelsOf shale, unleashed from a rent I ’ve torn in the tissues that Separate the living from the dead.  Even here in the shadows of waxing Crescent moon I can ’t escapeThe metallic reek of hemeDried to a line of purple-maroonLodged in the eaves of my nails In the darkness blood is the colorOf a bruiseAnd water is also the colorOf a bruiseIf only this river was just waterI wouldn ’t have to chooseBetween living an ever elaborate lieAnd dying straight awayUpon the sharp barb of self-inflicted trut...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 23, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs

poem
 Golf PencilI always saved the little pencil From a round of golf because It reminds me of life:Very short, no eraserBut a perfect conic missileSharpened to hypodermic point Such a pleasure to wield, at times,  Even just to scribble and doodle,Darken in all the D ’s and zeroesOn this governmental form With a metallic graphite sheen.As it wears down weBegin to ration our languageTo aphoristic obliquity:Love is not the opposite Of loneliness it is the fog on the stageWhen you ’ve forgotten all your lines.You are either a person perpetually anxious About becoming who you think ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 16, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs

poem
Sea AnemoneThe surgeon pulls on his scrub pants in front of the mirror.His fingers rapidly loop the orange drawstrings Together in a cinching knot.Now imagine it ’s just his fingers—No scrubs, no hospital, no arms, no body. Just fingers cutting deftly through the air in cryptic choreography. Now picture a sea anemone in a reef, its tentacles slowly Jazzing to and fro in the invisible ocean current. Try to imagine what it might be tying.10/16/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 16, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs

poem
 Recurring NightmaresSome speak of the horrorOf suddenly entering a loudBrightly lit ballroom filled with hundredsOf people they don ’t even know Others scoffIn dismissive contempt,For such an experience is eachUnfolding second of their everyday conscious lives Then there are those who stride Right in —big smiles, bigWhite f.ing teeth,Faces loose and aglow, rippling Enchantingly connective vibes Across the dancehall like a gameOf high-level four-way ping pongBetween just you and three wallsWith the sound turned down.How it felt like every time you shotThe ball would always come back,A game...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 10, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs

poem
 BirdA bird got into the houseDon ’t ask me what kindCall it a wrenIt was my fault. Left the sliding glassDoor open while the dog pissedNow it flutters around fromRoom to room presumablyGetting hungrier and hungrier By the hour It ’s an omenOf big changeEither you ' re falling in loveOr someone is about to die I ’ve combed the house Looking for the starling.Someone is runningOut of time10/3/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - October 3, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs