poem
Winter BreaksI ’m that scraggly tree over thereLooming over all the rest,A wicker brush dustingOff a film of sootAn arthritic claw Grasping at empty gray,Ruing all the lovely thingsNo longer there to clutch I think I ’m the oneScratching at the sky Shaking my fistIn a shivering anger But it ’s just the MarchWind rushing inTo fill a void leftBy your fleeing chillThat sways my trunk and limbsAnd thesaplings and hibiscuses And the reeds and grasses,And all the world I ’m standing inSo I give up the scratchingAnd imagine the winds asA shaman blowing into being One more fecund s...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 31, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Op Note XVIIShe ’s finally agreed to the operation. The original plan was to remove a tumor, maybe her gallbladder, her spleen. It was never quite clear. She wasn't nervous at all. She smiled and said thank you doctor. Do what you must. Someone would help her at last. She trusted us implicitly. But instead of a tumor we took out an apple, a pear. A glazed ham. A slice of peach cobbler. We were ravenous and incurious. This is what we had come to do. All those years of training. It was delicious. We fed like famished wolves. We ought to have been more ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 16, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Verge of SpringThis feels like the verge of springEven though winter clingsWith the last of its waning powersNaked trees clutch At a dullard gray skyWith bony arthritic hands A random pile of dirty ice,Last remnant of week ago snow,Glaciers against a curbIf you look closeYou can see white buds of cherry treesAnd daffodil stems just piercing the soilIf you look closerYou can see an empty patchOf grass that won ’t ever come back 3/15/22 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 15, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Poem #39Poems never asked to be hereThey ’re just like usProducts of some dumb youngAmerican male writhing With the girl he thinks he lovesOr vice versaBut it never lasts, that feeling.Something gets smashedA final thrust, a shudder, a heaving silence There has to be something betterParents always move on to something else It ’s the poems get left behindEmpty husks of wordsAbandoned to dangerous vulnerabilityCute, but a lot of workNo one to tend to them To wipe their chinsOf redundant nounsTo swaddle their stanzasWith loving precision.They forget their own names But the good ones remain h...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 15, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Poem #38Time to write a lousy poem.One that doesn ’t work on any levelNo flow, no rhymeSpirals into a core of infinite complexityA din of terrified cacophonyGuttural groansFrom depths of hellPrimitive utterancesNonsensical, sensicalRepetitive patterning Sing song, sing songTra la la la la, la la la la la laA melody, a symphonyA smilingNow laughingHa-ha ha-ha ha-ha Laughing with all the others.Eyes gleamingFaces looseningLips and tongue shaping Speaking, words, speakingWords and then linesLilting along as rhymesIn ever accelerating cadencesCompletely and wholly connectingThis will be the one I don ’...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 15, 2022 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
