poem
HaystacksSome mornings the sky is an impressionist painting steeped in violaceous streaks of anxious soft light. I pull over to the shoulder to snap a picture with my phone but the result never quite captures. By the time I get to work the colors have dissolved in the warm yellow orange glow. The sun continues to rise. The day arrives. A painting is an artifact of loss. Museums compendiums of once flickering flames. We swim through the wisps of spiraling smoke. In the darkness we reach for the wicks that are still warm. From memory the artists move their brushes across the canvas. Even the haystacks are dreams. Every...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - April 9, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
The BossI was eleven listening toBorn in the USABlasting from cheap boom box speakers Sprawled out on the skin thin carpetOf my tiny bedroom in Massillon.Even then I knew it wasn ’t an anthem.I ’d read the lyrics, all the songs,Printed on the fold outCassette cover like it was scriptureI was born to run I had a hungry heartI was going to get out of that two-bitDead man ’s town and go racing in the streetsFar away from this hand me down precarityThat tempts most into a docile mediocrityAnd find a reason to believe.Driven by nothing but a desperate hopeAnd an inchoate rage manifesting as tenacity All I ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - April 6, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
TonePick that up you don ’t have to say it like that you don’t have to say what’s the matter like that you don’t have to sit on the beach in a chair when the waves roll in like the hands of a clock without any numbers. Just throw yourself on the sand with the rest of the detritus washed up on shore abandoned really if you want to be honest some of it still useful well more interesting than useful like this broken shard of limestone shell pebbled with little bumps radiating out from the focal point probably in some sort of Golden Ratio configuration nature is always finding itself in and you don ' t have to sa...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 25, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Triage This one has already diedThis one won ’t survive the nightThis one needs a blanketThis one is just sadThis one is fineThis one will liveThis one looks okBut is torn to shreds insideThis one could use a breath mintA change of clothes This one needs a long hot showerSomeone to bring him an extra pillow This one it ’s probably too lateThis one lost me when I tried to look into her eyes This one tries to drown you in her eyes This one needs an IVThis one just needs heldThis one could use a calculus refresherThis one just needs the right book at the right time This one needs a mirr...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 22, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
The 12th DraftYou know what? I can ’t go through with it. I take it all back. I retract the apologies spewed in all the other drafts. None of you are absolved. You’re all to blame. It’s all your fault I came this close. I don’t regret the temporary sense of loss I may have inflicted. I’m still here, grinding my teeth, nursi ng hard earned grudges. Do not go on with your lives. Do not remarry. Cancel the meeting with the estate attorney. Stop trying to be strong in the face of untimely tragedy. Do not leave my room untouched. Stop curating your memories. Un-cancel your holiday plans. I’ve spared you the ha...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 22, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Lifelong FriendWe spend the bulk of our livesAlone with the personNo one else really knowsThe one who sits with youAs the March snow falls in feathery ashOn the other side of smudged bedroom windowsOver time the distinction between Yourself and this person blurs into one But it ' s only an act of self preservationTo ease the pain of alwaysHaving to say goodbye To your oldest, truest friend Every moment is a secret little deathBut he always comes back to lifeBefore there ’s any time for lamentationSuch private farewells are best deferredUntil the final days when it ’s obviousWe ' ve both come t...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 19, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
From DarknessA photon experiences no timeTrillions of years travelingThe vastness of the universeBut instantaneous. Light of my lifeTiny eternal flame Time arises from darkness Surreptitious moon like a shy boyWatching you shine from the other room In timeless radiance 3/12/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 12, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
The Funeral DisruptorThe funeral disruptor was at it again. Driving his car through the All Saints Cemetery Saturday morning with the windows down, blasting Gangster ’s Paradise. The small groups of people in black gathered around rectangular holes were collectively aghast. He stopped his car at the biggest gathering. He put his sunglasses on and leapt into the grave.Laertes come hither! he shouts, brandishing a broken off broomstick. No one finds it amusing.Hearse rhymes with curse, he shouts. He zig zags evasive maneuvers around a couple of beefy pall bearers and makes his way to his bass thumping car. He does th...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 12, 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
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
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
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
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
