poem
Birds of TwilightEvening birds convene in old trees, plotting crimes.In the twilight I can never actually see them,Squawking up there behind bruised leaves,Only their coming and going.All we ever know are voices.Mom and dad fighting late at night I never understood a wordA language beyond my graspI didn ’t even want to see the letters they usedHuddled on the last step of the staircaseListening, beyond the clutch of their living room light The scariest time is just after duskWhen the birds go silent.You can ’t tell what they’re up toIf they ’re even still there. Torn between an urge to keep quie...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - June 22, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Father ' s DayLooking through old pictures of my sonHe looks sullen and snide, lip curled,Eyes squinted like he ’s aiming a dartAt everyone ’s invisible bullseyeLook at that little assholePeople would saySomeone needs to wipe That smirk off his faceBut I know the truth:His little world riven in half,Mom and dad nightly fightingAlways at one another ’s throatsSo we had to get our shit together,Mom and dad, even the boy himself.Now when he cracks a smile In pictures he means itAnd so the cycle goes onBoys grow into menSons become dads makingAnd breaking such fragile delicaciesAlong the way.Each little f...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - June 18, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Taylor SwiftAt the Taylor Swift show in PittsburghMost of the restrooms were reserved femaleWhen I finally found a men ’s roomIt was near empty and very cleanAs I pissed a pleasant tropical fragrance Wafted around me in heady swirls.It struck me the pains we take to mitigateThe foul, the ugly, the reeking, the distastefulMy own piss, via complex chemical reactionsWith the lime green slab at the baseWas creating a Costa Rican faunaOf sweet citrusy florality It ’s just piss, I thoughtIt ’s just me and my own pissI didn ’t need this Funeral home perfumes, deodorants and antiperspirantsThe way we d...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - June 18, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
The SecretThe secret to a good life is very difficult To convey in a conventional mannerOne way of practicingIs to try to learn to recognizeThat you are in a dreamWithout waking up To be able to say: This is a dreamWhile remaining steadfastly engagedAs a participant in thisProjection of your own mindThus, in some ways you are sleepingQuite soundly while in othersYou are fully engrossed and aliveIf you can master this very difficultAnd esoteric skill, many thingsWill start to fall into placeYou will begin to understand thatSomeone is always sleeping and Someone is always awakeEvery dream remembered beco...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - June 18, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Satellite RadioI listen to the satellite radio in the car, I confessCan ’t stand commercials The only problem is that the signal sometimesJust goes out. Those binary bits of songs riding along on quantum waves Apparently need, at all times, a clean and unobstructed pathOccasionally it happens driving through a tunnelOr waiting to pay to exit a parking garage.The station flatlines and everything goes silentIt always comes back but still …I never get back the best partsOf the song I ’ve missed Which hardly seems fair, given the costs.Sometimes the signal goes outSeveral minutes after I ’ve unroof...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - June 18, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
VerandaThe renowned poet sat on the veranda with his wife, entertaining another couple they ’d known for years. He was in fine form this particular evening. Funny and humble.Careful not to dominate or overwhelm. A presence like the moon. The air was respectfully elegiac and, as long as the breeze kept its wits, not too chilly. His wife had just refilled his gin. Suddenly one came to him. He put down his glass. And then, with an abruptness that might strike the uninitiated as rude, he rose and quickly dashed into his study and proceeded to spend the next 25 minutes getting down what he could. Enough to make somethin...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - June 7, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Write What You KnowAnytime you ' re stuck or sounding derivative that ’s what they always say. Write what you know. For the longest time I ignored it. Deluded by the arrogance of the overlooked. For fruitless years I wrote about rivers even though I’m clueless. Landlocked and sea sick. I hate to fish. All my rivers just wind and shimmer, wind and shimmer. They bec ome chlorinated lazy rivers lily padded with sunburnt bodies wafting along in blow up rafts. Meanwhile I ' m just using them to skip a stone to the other side. Do you know how long it takes to really know if you know anything? I know a little bit, I ' l...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - June 6, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
NamingYou ’re not lostYou ’re right hereLook — your stack of unread booksYour pile of old scrubsIf you feel lostIt ’s usually just becauseYou ’ve haven’t the wordsTo describe where you are The act of naming Is always orientingAdam was granted this powerSo he would know he ' d left the Garden of EdenYou don ’t have to force Old tongues on new worldsTake a deep breath And let your tongue twist the airMake a list Of all your neologismsConstruct a grammarAnd a world emerges you can map In old growth forestsThe trees and mossesAlready know what to call you 5/25/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 25, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Died in Her SleepThe old lady seemed surprisingly stable the next morningGiven her age, the physiologic insult And what I had to do to her. She smiled wanly and reachedOut a soft alabaster hand Not to reassure me so muchAs making sure I was realThat her rapidly spiraling demiseWhat not just a dreamI saw: it ’s not your fault, you did the best you couldIn her eyes but probably Her eyes were just being nice Then she closed them and drifted off into A dream where I was an old man, on my deathbedSurrounded by everyone I loved and those who loved me (A Venn diagram approximating a near...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 24, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Kentucky DerbyYou ’ll enjoy a day at the derby with me. I ' m the guy always growlingand down the stretch they come! whenever you return from the bar or bathroom. Pantomime galloping on a broom I found in a closet like I ' m on a filly exhorting her to find that extra gear win place or show it ’s a great time, everyone gets paid. I’m the guy without a sophisticated hat, sans bowtie, dressed like a beachcomber because I prefer sea horses to thoroughbreds, the five o ' clock shadow jockey four juleps down the tubes, whipping at thin air with the sinewy thread that wends his whole life together, you ’ll feel the...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 23, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Penitent RoundsSometimes I ’ll block out a little timeAt the end of the day to roundOn all my demented patients.I wait for nurse ’s shift changeWhen everyone is distracted, And then stealthily slip into the roomsOf the lost and forgotten, the actively forgettingClose the door behind meDim the lights and then I justStart dishing dirt, spilling it all outLike the unchewed beans plastered to the front of their gownsI don ’t hold back—About how I ’ve always been Such a liar and a cheatA puffed up phony who Who isn ' t worth the paperMy fancy diploma is printed on(Although itisa nice cotton rag)I ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 22, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Poem #46The poem is the intimate conversation You wish you had with anyoneYou ever loved every time You ever saw themInstead of all the mindless prattleThe poem is the deepest, truest connectionThe only link between the living and the deadBetween hope and despairThe past and the presentThe surrender and the battleThe poem scorns a future That tries to kill it Every failed relationship, broken friendship,Inexplicable estrangement is foundedOn a fundamental jealousyA yawning regret that it never became a poemOr maybe it once wasAnd stopped5/22/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 22, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
First ResponderI went to check a pulseAnd when I turned her headHer face was goneInstead of a faceThere were a million wordless thoughtsAnd thousand sacrilegious prayersInstead of a little girlWe ’d become a bodyIn the bushes, gunned down Without a faceNo one smilesYou can ’t even a frown 5/7/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 7, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Op Note XXXIXIt was starting to get ridiculous. I ’d remove a gallbladder and then another would appear. So I’d take that one out too. Blink of an eye and there’d be another. Same place too. Cornered right there between the liver, heart and a hazy kind of darkness. It kept growing back and growing back, over and over and over. But that’s ju st your life, she said. You’re always working. No, I said. You’re wrong. It was the same patient. The same gallbladder. Eternal recurrence and all that. She shook her head. You ’re getting confused, she said. You’re working too hard. The lack of sleep is caus...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 4, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Time-outHe woke to familiar surroundingsThis same bed, at the usual timeIn the stygian hour before dawnA quick confirmation of name and ageDate of birth, identifying sets of digitsMaking sure the numbers match Then to the bathroomTo wash his handsHe washed his feet, his neckHis back and his faceHis whole body glistenedHalf wet, naked in jaundiced light. Before dressing he locked eyesWith the intractable apparitionHolding his gaze in the mirror,That enigmatic innermost onion peelWho never looked upon anyone elseAnd by no other eyes was ever seen And, once again, he accepted the factThat this dead-eyed a...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - May 1, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
