poem
Pour One Out Families are sometimes imperfect Vessels to pour our love intoBut pour it out we must becauseLet ’s face it, how else will you taste it?There will be spills, rest assured,And you will get unreasonably angry Ruing all the love you think you wasted. Carafes and bottles eventuallyGet chipped, cracked, temporarily misplaced.Sometimes they dull to the Clouded opacity of old glass But something happens To the love we store thereIn dust laden receptacles under stairwellsIn cabinets above the refrigerators It never matters how much time passesWhat we pour in every year&n...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - September 18, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Look UpClouds trundling across skyLike cargo containers in a depotLife is clouds wandering by Where do they go?Parked outside my office buildingI ’m 15 minutes late Making all the patients wait That ' s when you notice The clouds are always movingNo matter how still you need Everything to be, like now, When you ' re trying to write A searing love letterThat doubles as a break-up letter, Using the same arguments With the same old words A letter that only ends When a language is exhausted Like a puzzle is only finishedWhen you ’ve used all the pieces...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - September 14, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
NecktieI stopped wearing necktiesTo the hospital for roundsNo more Windsor knotsFor me, too much work Too much like a nooseHanging from my gallows Paisley power blue tipsWhisking across seeping wounds Spreading germs and disease I won ’t contributeAnymore to my own deathIt ’s enough just being aliveIt ’s why I don ' t smoke or skydive Or swallow swords or play with fireWhy hasten the end?I should have joined the circus —The world ' s smallest manWatch him twist himself intoA tiny bug-sized bow tie,The gift shop with rowsOf miniature reproductions Of my pretzled contortions M...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - September 14, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
End of SummerI love the end of summerThis quasi autumnBefore the leaves turnWhen it seems everythingHas settled into aForm of final being Not too hotNot too coldA heaven ignorant of hellCrickets chirping with jazz trio confidenceWhile the birds seem to know they have plenty of time.Nature ’s stopped producingBut nothing is ready to be sold Nothing is dying yetAnd nothing is being bornIt ' s as close as we get to a paintingWhere everything we seeHas come to timeless fruitionNostalgia has narrowedDown to a sliver containing Only what is right now This cracked sidewalkAnd a sense that we ' re allJu...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - September 11, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
OrchidsLive your lifeLike it was a questionYou didn ' t know the answer toJust like everyone else is doingWithout even knowing Outside the birds are singingStaccato then trillingBut the orchids look sadElegant thin necks bowingUnder the weight Of some inscrutable grief What was the question?9/9/22 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - September 9, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
OthernessSo much time spent as a me versus everyone elseBelieving there ' s mine and the rest is yoursInside a mind walled off from everything out there Me and youYou and meUs or nothing elseThey say there are seven forms of loveBut we both know that ’s nonsenseThere ' s just the one kindThe only one that mattersThe one that bridges the gap Between an individual and anyone else.I ’m afraid it’s all an illusion though,This separation between selfAnd the rest of the world Which would mean love Is also an illusionOr at least an unnecessary link,That all this timeThere was merely no othernessIn ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - September 7, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
PeachesCan you please stop Eating that peach so loudI hate the sound of chewingGnashing lips and tongueThe wet succulent tearingOf teeth into flesh I hate the sound of anyone eatingI hate the sound of breathingThe necessary noises of the livingDon ’t cough, don’t sneezeDon ' t fall asleep until I ’m passed outBe silent pleaseLet there be no soundsMake it as if I was all alone I ’ll wait for when the silenceOf ceaseless thinking Becomes a deafening horror And then go out listening For clues of where youMay have gone9/6/22 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - September 6, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
SaudadeDear Nephew- It ’s me, your Uncle Nobody. You probably don’t remember me. We haven’t seen each other in years. I’m one of those guys who just disappears. Rarely even leave a trace. Nothing you did. It ' s all my fault. You were just a child. Life sweeps you away. I mean, it swept me away. You don ’t even have to call me Uncle. Think of me as a distant cousin, if that’s more comfortable. Think of me as a ghost. A middle aged failure with a scuffed suitcase. An old cuckoo clock you barely remember from your grandmother’s house. I stopped ticking. I gotta be ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - September 5, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
NecktieI stopped wearing necktiesTo the hospital for roundsPaisley blues, power redTips whisking across woundsNo more Windsor knotsFor me, too much work Too much like a nooseHanging from my gallows I won ’t contributeAnymore to my own deathIt ’s enough just being aliveIt ’s why I don ' t smoke or skydive Or swallow swords or eat fireWhy hasten the end?I should have joined the circus —The world ' s smallest man:Watch him twist himself intoA tiny bug-sized bow tieThe gift shop with rowsOf twisted reproductions Of my pretzled contortions Made from strands of woolDyed the color of human f...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - September 4, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
ShadeSome dads cast a giant shadowWhile others just leave an big empty spaceThat a boy spends most of his life Figuring out ways to fillHe tries on sadness for whileBut tears never last for longIn such dry inhospitable ground.Besides, the man of the house mustn ' t cryEven when the man is just a boy. So he tries on angerAnd it suits him well.He makes an ax and goes In search of forests to fell.It ’s hard work laboring underThe searing gnaw of an acid sunThat burns his pale skinSo many times it thickensInto a scarred bronze hideThat doesn ' t hurt anymore No matter how bright it shines.And becaus...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - September 3, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem for my nephew's wedding
I DoToday it ’s easy to say I do It spills from the lips Like the words are running downhillBut what you ’re really saying today is I willTo a long list of lofty promises:To honor and cherishTo love and support To hold in your heart.Then rings are exchangedAnd it all gets sealed with a kissBut it only begins with I do.The rest becomes your life.Don ' t let it be an empty platitude,Frivolous words before the kids and mortgages,Before you start to bicker and feud,Before the graying of rootsAnd the slow slackening of form,Before the unraveling of all you thought you knew.I do is not just todayIt ’s ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - September 3, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Op Note 30He was one of my favorite patients. He and his wife were so loving and tender together. She never left his side. She slept on the couch in his hospital room and greeted me in the mornings on rounds in a fuzzy robe and furry slippers. They always let me know they saw what I was trying to do.You really care, that ’s what’s different about you, she used to say. In the way she said it, it somehow wasn ' t cringe at all.Watch this man closely, she used to tell my medical students. I felt seen. Isn ’t that wild? Here I am, making it all about me. But that’s ok. They wouldn ’t have minded. They alwa...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 30, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Word CountLove is a bookWhich has exactly 237 pagesI am 51.8% of the way through.I paid for this book with pennies and dimesBanked from years of 9 to 5 loneliness When I finish, the book will belong to meAnd then I will share some of it with you I will read it out loudI will reenact certain passages But you won ' t be able to touch it Or even look at itYou will have to get your ownI ’ve measured its length and widthAnd yes it fits perfectly on the bookcaseAt home. I can read it as often as I wishBut someone has to cast a spellIn order to turn the pageAnd something has to happenTo the space aroun...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 27, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
RainbowLow plumes of white clouds on the horizon suggest a distant fire. I ' m always driving toward conflagration. I ’m drawn to all blazes. I chase after storms. Chuck stones at hornet’s nests. Wave my hand over the licking flames. Always getting a little too close. Fascinated by the flickerings of fire, the way it turns good wood to ash. My first word was “hot”, learned the hard way, touching the orange glow of our electric stove. I watch the shivering people at bus stops in the winter and their little misted clouds of exhalation tell me everything will be alright. That everyone sti...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 22, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Op Note XXIXI introduced myself as the surgeon. The room was darkened. The curtains were drawn. The patient was pale and waifish in the bed. Nurses had layered her in blankets. All you could see was her head. She was 95 years old. So the chart said. She still lived alone. Her wince when I pressed her abdomen confirmed the suspicion. What to do? She smiled at me, a pink edentulous grin, and whispered “ask them”, nodding toward the pleather couch by the window. Funny, I hadn ' t noticed anyone when I came in. But there they were: a little girl in a tartan ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 18, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
