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Desertion
 
So much invasion, and so little to see–
in a moment you might put on your hat,
toss your newspaper into the fireplace,
empty your waterbottle into the sink. 
You might abandon even the remote
control.  Take your shirt
from the back of the chair
at the head of the table. Pack
your dictionary. So little to take
with you. Nothing of use to leave
behind. The empty room full
of your need
to be heard.

Dessert
 
two                              what one said to the other
       knives                              in the dish drainer
    crossed                              yesterday’s ashes
             on                              his empty hands
               a                              flame that echoed
        white                              her face
           lace                              a brittle dance
          table                              torn and carved
          cloth                              on the edge of the stairs

Nineteen
 
lives in a typical
guy house
 
refrigerator
with nothing but
condiments
and a Chinese food carton
age and origin unknown
 
conversation  revolves around beer
and the deeper
philosophical questions
 
he keeps a double mattress on the floor
with a single pokemon sheets
stretched to a diagonal near fit
and a very old
pacman pillow
 
the entertainment center
is state of the art

Oversight
 
Mother presents
with request for utility form completion
 
Physician aware
 
Records clerk brings chart to physician for review
Chart documents poorly controlled asthma
MD requests that parent wait while MD completes exam of scheduled patient
Mother expresses anger at medical records clerk
Attempts to follow clerk into medical record room
 
Physician aware
 
MD repeats request that parent wait while MD completes exam of sick child
Mother threatens clerk with bodily harm
Staff request clinic manager dial 911
 
Physician aware
 
MD requests mother wait until care of current patient is completed
Clinic manager escorts parent to an exam room
Mother co-operative with physician as form is completed
Staff requests improved security protocol
 
Mother fails to bring asthmatic child to office for care as requested by physician
 
Union grievance filed against manager by clinical staff for failure to dial 911

Zen
 
I was the medical student on orthopedic surgery. 
It was a big case: neurosurgery, orthopedics
and pediatric surgery all involved; a child
with myelomeningocele, respiratory compromise
secondary to worsening scoliosis. He lay on his
left side. One group was to enter the chest,
one the back, one the abdomen. The first incisions
were made by general surgery (the abdomen)
and ortho (the back) then anesthesia spoke: dropping
pressures, irregular rhythm, flat line flat line transfuse
shock shock.  Bill Jo, left-handed, four foot ten, stood
across from me, quiet, good-humored; for four hours
he held the heart in his hands, a bag of worms.  Pump 
Pump.  Pump.  I carried warm saline to lavage
the intestines. Neurosurgery never scrubbed.
We stood under the hot OR lamps as fall light
grayed to black.  Bill told quiet jokes in unaccented
English. The first board certified Korean American
pediatric surgeon.  Ortho left. Bill squeezed the heart. 
Again.  Again. Competent. Steady.  Gave me a turn. 
The faintest stirring movement. That bag of worms. 
Defribulate. Jolt.  And it did. On the eleventh try. 
Sinus rhythm.  On rounds the next day the child
sat up, CNS fully intact, told us all about kindergarten.



Copyright 2009, Kelley White. © This work is protected under the U.S. copyright laws. It may not be reproduced, reprinted, reused, or altered without the expressed written permission of the author.



Kelley White worked as a pediatrician in inner-city Philadelphia for almost 30 years and now is in practice at a community health center in rural New Hampshire.  Poetry has often saved her life.  She is a recipient of a 2008 fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and her most recent book is Toxic Environment from BostonPoet Press.