poem
The BruxistI ' m a modern American manIn all the usual waysExcept for a rather severeVariant of night clenching.While sleeping I crack crownsAnd grind molarsDown to skipping stones.My dentist asks If I ’ve been eating rocks.Soon I ’ll need dietary modifications—Only softs and purees, nothing to gnaw,Nothing with a crunchAnything I can just gum.I wake with the ache of a spikeDriven into the hingeOf my jaw.Mouth guards don ’t helpI just clamp down harder.I ’m ravenous for something at night, it seems,Driven to feed an emptinessHiding in the hole of the gutThat can never be sated. As soon as I fall a...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - September 7, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
ViolinsOf the woodwinds, violins are sexiest —That narrow tapered waist,The thin neck emerging from the upper boutLike a bare calf beneath a skirtTerminating in the carved scrollLike toes curled into the carpet.The plaintive sounds seem to comeFrom the dark holes of your eyesWith my hands wrapped around Your stringed fingerboard.I whisper this is making loveInto mysterious dark portalsWithout knowing where the words go.Oh if we could make this lastTo somehow forget for a few minutesMore that this is the same song playedOn the day of all death,Not as surging climaxBut somber adagio for strings Swelling to ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 27, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
FearsI read somewhere If you ' re afraid of love it meansYou ' re just afraid of deathI don ' t want to die,Not yet. But I ' ll rise to the occasion.And so I stay love-adjacentI keep it close by8/27/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 27, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Poem #48I want to write a poemAs simple as a series of instructionsWhen you get to the end, presto —A stylish new bookcaseThat never wobblesOr a complicated electric toyThat actually whirrs to life But there ' re no books for the empty shelvesAnd no kids are interested in your cheap plastic gift well then, a poem at least ought to be instructiveA series of steps taking youFrom point A to point BGet to the last stanzaAnd you ’re nearly in Paris.Halfway to self-immolationFor this to be true you have to know Where you ’re starting from And point A often remains elusiveWhich is the crux of the p...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 24, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Dog HaikuThe dog ’s eyes look sadI scratch his head, his bellyHis eyes start to wag8/24/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 24, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Know ThyselfWhen you first come to understand yourselfAnd find out who you really areIt ’s like nothing you ever thoughtEverything clicks. It was always so obviousAll those things you ’ve doneAnd the ways you areThere was always an easy explanationA traceable map to explain the journeyFrom gallant young lad to workaholic hoarderClinging to crumbs Fallen from an untouched cake So fearful of lossHe ' d lost the taste for evenThe things that nourished himAnd not just a workaholic hoarderWith stones stacked around a soft heart But an ill-equipped little boy who hadTo go out alone and find the stonesTo ...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 21, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
EmojiTexting is confusingThumbs up! Not a diss.Take it easy.I ’m agreeing! Unironically!When I sayyainstead ofyesor evenyeah You think I ' m being a dickBut I was just musing on the MatterhornIf I respond with a watering eyes laughing emojiTo something clever you ' ve saidIt annoys the f. out of you Not everything I say Is the funniest goddam thing anyoneOn earth has ever said, you sayI didn ’t mean thatSo I reply with the bland basic smile face, The one that looks like if he were an actual person he ’d be super niceI need a fresh selection of emojisOnes with facesBearing expressionsYou ' ve never...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 17, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Secret Third ThingSome mornings the sky is an impressionist painting steeped in violaceous streaks of timorous soft light. I pull over to the shoulder to snap a picture with my phone but the result never quite captures. A ginned up pick up truck veers too close and honks. By the time I get to work the colors have dissolved into the yellow orange haze. The sun continues to rise. The day arrives. Everything once again is gray or black or white. And all the others. The other colors. The ones I don ’t care about anymore. A painting is an artifact of loss. Museums compendiums of everything dear and departed.If I come up...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 17, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
AugustAugust againThe end of summerThe end of something youNever got around to namingNostalgia arises for a Scheherazadean hazeObscuring the details of whatMust have been your very own life Join me for a drink in the Florida room Where the ceiling fan rattles like a loose grocery cart wheelAnd no one should be forced to endure these chairsWasps leer on the other side of the screenBut there isn ’t anything to sayWe listen, note the inconsistency of odorsRealize we ’re out of ginOut of gasI should have mowed the grassIt ’s high time we harvested the fruitsOf our own forgetfulness8/15/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 15, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Funny, Not FunnySometimes it ' s hard to laughCheeks heavy with QuikreteToo much of a liftI ‘ve read all the psychologistsThere are only four valid reasons for anxiety:Not knowing what is about to happen.Fear that performance won ' t match expectation.Three, that you ’ll be seen as you really are:A fool, incompetent, boring, a dork.And four, realizing that the only certainty is your own uncertaintyAbout anything, anyone, ever againAt least you won ’t be able to doubt that You ' re done with funnyIt ’s not even worth mourningYou ’ve entered your spaced outLunar eclipsed nihilist goth phase The sunflowers...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 15, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Modern LoveModern love is a rat raceSwiping left or rightLunch dates and dinner datesDifferent women, different menKeeping your options openDon ’t fall in love yetDon ’t fall in loveHow do you know If he ’s the oneWhen there ’s a non-zero chanceOf loving whoever ’s next A tiny bit more?I ’m a little old fashionedI like to get medieval with my loveRacks and thumbscrews Castles and moatsMy heart on a shield 8/12/23 (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 13, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Discharge InstructionsYou may have clear liquids today And nothing but salted meats tomorrowYou may lap from a bowl, sip from a hatYou may go outside and wander aimlessly In the morning in the evening but never at noonThere will be no more needles in veinsNo blood pressure cuffsNo stickers stuck to your chestYou may piss wherever you likeYou may experience a tingling behind the eyes A gutting sense of loss each time your mindReleases another thought. You may eat with your eyes closed You may hot showerYou may swim in a lakeOf slippery insouciancesYou may shave You may smile in lieu of lu...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 7, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Moon PoemPoets are always writing about the moonNobody writes about the sunThe always whole sunNever waxing or waningShining down tyrannicalArrival so predictableLike Dad home from workAnd you know what that meansTime to get your shit togetherOr whatever it really meansIn your part of the countryIt can mean everythingAnd where ’s the fun in thatSome things are too perfect for poetryThe moon on the other handIs only ever occasionally complete And some nights it doesn ’t Even show up at all. Ha! we think.That ’s me!Mostly just slivers of myselfAnd when I do finally put it all togetherIt ’s usuall...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 7, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
All the Feelings All of the feelings there are to feelAre never as important as the feelingThat arises when a feeling feltSevers itshomoussionconnection to feelerAnd becomes just another adjectiveTo describe a noun we regretfully call self Most people miss the importance Of this fleeting experience, dismiss It as mere interregnumBut you always feel somethingEven when you thinkYou ’re between feelingsAll it takes is a stopping reflection Standing in front of a two-way mirrorIn the bathroom of the train station Many people spend their lives hereTrapped in a way station Somewhere bet...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - August 7, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
poem
Dick TricksIn college I knew a guy named Cochran who could do dick tricks. You had to be well endowed, obviously. Late night, he ’d whip it out in front of everyone—fraternity brothers and sorority girls alike—and go through his catalog of phallic machinations. There was the “Sad Turtle”. The “Basset Hound”. The “Gentlemen’s Curtsy”. He had one called the “Watusi” which I couldn’t ever bear to watch. “Grandma’s Tongue” was a perennial favorite. He would unfurl his redundant scrotal skin into a flat, dry, slightly hairy flap of dirty pink, sort of like your grandma’s tongue when...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - July 31, 2023 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
