We instill the Pain—
Surgeons assuage in Vain—²
A doctor buries his patient’s existential despair
Under a heap of Tranquilizing Drugs.³
Healers in these parts can make
One WHOLE—or Deathly Ill—⁴
Now let us see what Remains,
After such surgical ingenuity …⁵
The medicines they give are only
For Show: most hurts heal by themselves.⁶
Doctors’ usefulness does not depend on making the
Patient swallow substances (for the most part harmful)—
But they’re indispensable because they satisfy
A Mental Need of the sick & their family.⁷
Doctors play against
A Sickness past their cure!⁸
May a new clinic rise to Cure all Ills its
Site is host to—and not mistreat the desperate.⁹
We test a person’s profession by their practice—
Physician, Heal Thyself!¹⁰
¹ Ocean Vuong, Almost Human
² Emily Dickinson, Ah, Necromancy Sweet
³ Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
⁴ C.D. Wright, Deepstep Come Shining
⁵ C.P. Cavafy tr. Rae Dalven, In a Famous Greek Colony, 200 B.C.
⁶ Madeline Miller, Circe
⁷ Leo Tolstoy tr. Louise and Aylmer Maude, War and Peace
⁸ Robert Lowell, Mr. Edwards and the Spider
⁹ Alan Dugan, Dedication for a Building
¹⁰ Aesop tr. Thomas James, The Quack Frog