poem
Final ArrangementsThis older couple was tellingMe about how they had alreadyPurchased their cemetery plot Successful people, educated,Had paid off all their loans Pillars of some sub-average communityDon ' t get me wrong:It ’s the right thing to doAn act of dispassionate probitySparing mourning childrenThe undignified taskOf final arrangements But I ’ve already decidedIt ’s cremation for me; no one’sPutting my corpse in the wet ground. Being similarly disposed Toward responsible stewardshipI know it ’s time for me to pick a fire Nothing too garishly infernal A simple blaze with ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - January 9, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Contingency PlanOnce loved we reconfigure as charactersIn someone else ’s dream come true.As conjured participants in another ’s dreamWe inevitably recognize our tenuous status: Our dreamer could wake at any moment.We ’d cease to exist.So we do whatever we can To keep them soundly asleep:Another warm blanketA soft pillowWhite noiseDrawn drapes to hide the moon In the dream I lean over And whisper into her ear:Yes my love, it ’s all real,It isn ’t just a dream1/9/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - January 9, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Had, HaveOnce it was this great feeling I hadOr maybe it had meEither way, tragic possessionLike falling in quicksandThe more you flailThe deeper the digressionNow it ’s just something IhaveLike an old key in a drawerI forget what it opensThis scar on my handOnce a deep woundWish it would bleed again1/5/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - January 5, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Black Hole SonnetYour heart is a star of immeasurableMass and infinite densityYou ’ve drawn into your depthsAll matter — inanimate and fleshAnd all the light of the universeSave a single luminous beam.I get as close as I canWithout falling all the way inTime slows down near the edgeAs I spiral around in ever tighter orbitsUntil time seems to nearly stopOur best chance was always the timelessI ’ll try not to wobble in the non-Time before the inevitable tumble1/1/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - January 1, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Chicken and EggWhat comes first —God or the desireFor something divine Feast or the hungerLove or stark shivering alone The omnipotent father or the unbegotten son,One of them sayingLet there be light,The rest is darkness The other saying forgiveness,He knows not what he does Just assigning namesTo the timeless eternityIt ’s a chicken and egg thingThe empty hole in our heartsThat gives us something to fillThis right now(I had never noticed before)Is the hinge Between the loverAnd the loved This right hereIs the portal through Which god must passTo get to the place where Eve...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - January 1, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
FragmentsThe fragmentary nature of lifeDoesn ' t mean that it ’s brokenAll you need is a narrativeThat wends it all togetherEveryone is writing a storyWe hope will hold forever 12/29/22 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - December 29, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
RutherfordWe ’re like electrons—Clouds of probabilityUntil improbably seenSomehow we collide —Call it love, call it connectionThen it ’s very RutherfordianDiscrete little balls of energyScything around the same sunIn precisely defined orbitsAs long as you Don ' t veer too farFrom me and I don ’t hide I ’ll remain myself—Distinct mind, a charged body Woven into your strobing sphereBut the second you look away —The lights go out I ’m gone 12/29/22 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - December 29, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Dream StateMy dreams are never particularly seductiveNot much is happening, reallyBut they draw me in all the sameMaybe I enjoy them more than I let onMaybe I ’m just engrossed in an interesting new systemEvery so often I ’m in an MC Escher structure That resembles my third grade homeroom A moment always comes, though, when I get this hunchThat everything here is just a dreamA whisper from my waking statePerhaps, but I ignore itI just want it all to keep goingI put a lot of effort into having it make sense I ’ve grown comfortable hereI want to see how it all endsPart of me knows that waking up&nb...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - December 22, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Poem #44This is a workmanlike poemIt doesn ’t have time for loveIt ’s all been chiseled from stoneIt seeks physical endurance While ceding emotional resonanceTo aspiring sonnets and odes It lacks beautiful imageryDue to disciplined editingIt settles for being a series of small wordsThat convey a simple meaningIt ’s the stagnant waters dulled to opacityDesperately clinging to all the colors In the sky before the clouds come It ’s closing your eyes and counting to tenWhile all the angels are falling You pay it no mind but these Are the ones that get inside Prosody is fine and ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - December 22, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Op Note XXXIIII began to think of the hospital as home. Not a second home. Home, home. Hacienda.La maison ancienne. The espresso machine in the break room. The couch in the doctor ’s lounge while waiting for a case to start. Extra pairs of socks in my locker. A clean shirt hanging from a hook. Old New Yorkers I ’ve left all over the recovery room. Moments of contemplation in the meditation room. That one place where I really like to sit. The extra toothbrush. I know where everything is. The saltines, the ginger ales, the mini-bags of pretzels. I just need a shelf with all my favorite books. A fl...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - December 19, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Cruelest MonthI get the argument that April is the cruelest monthEvery spring it all comes storming backFlaunting it in our faces Bloom after f.ing bloomBut not for us. Just one blossoming for the likes of us And the bulk of our petals have already fallen December is a different kind of suffering Carved out of modern time as a marketing scamDriven by quarterly Capitalist sales demandsDid I buy enough?Was I too selfish?Did I waste a year of life?Will I ruin Christmas?And how all that phony nostalgia and Auld Lang Syne Preys upon our sense of running out of time It ’s just win...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - December 15, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Dramatis PersonaeThe auditorium is packed and stuffy.Everyone dressed to the ninesFanning themselves with programs Perfume wafting in thick waves With deep baritone cologneA rolling tide of lipsticked murmuring But we ’re all watching an empty stageWaiting, waiting for the show to beginMen in masks bring out the propsNothing but blank canvasesLooming over scattered brushesAnd tubes of unlabeled oil paintsIn the pit we find an orchestra of muted instruments:Plugged horns and stuffed woodwinds Volas unstrung,Waiting for us to unfurl The strings wrapped around our necks Impatient op...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - December 12, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
Fruit Tree
Fruit TreeI pick up an appleAnd say this is a pearYou roll your eyesYou really don ’t careAnymore, call it whateverIt ’s overripe and starting to smellI cut it open and extract a few seedsHere, stick one in the ground, if you dareThen go on your wayCall it exile, call it anywhere I ’ll be the one who waters itWatches it Shelters it from winds By the time it starts to shed leaves You ’ll neither distrust meNor remember to trustThat I ' ll do as I say Either way it becomes a treeThat dangles with succulent truthWhoever winsGets to keep the shadeAs for the fruitI promise, I promise I ' l...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - December 10, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Fruit TreeI pick up an appleAnd say this is a pearYou roll your eyesYou really don ’t careAnymore, whatever, call it whateverIt ’s overripe and starting to smellI cut it open and extract a few seedsHere, stick one in the ground, if you dareThen go on your wayCall it exile, call it anywhere I ’ll be the one who waters itWatches it Shelters it from winds By the time it starts to shed leaves You ’ll neither distrust meNor remember to trustThat I ' ll do as I say Either way it becomes a treeThat dangles with succulent truthWhoever winsGets to keep the shadeAs for the fruitI promise, I pro...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - December 10, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
SpendthriftI can get through thisI ' m a spendthrift with timeDistilled it down to A means of transactionUse it to buy blocks of distraction. Stay overworked. Stacksof books. Stoned reveries.Absurdist escapist. Quietly suppressed rage. I try not to think about it anymore. I don ' t have timeAll I can spare is a few minuteshere in the white spacesof this last page 12/7/22 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - December 7, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
