Pathological Humors

I think you’d have laughed too.

Humans tend to laugh

Wrong,

And at the wrong times.

And doctors are so human

Always.

But, never while it’s happening

(Of course),

For that would be demonic.

Though later,

After the rigor has set in

And looking back on the

Perhaps avoidable,

Perhaps careless,

Tragedy

Oh Christos!

And, while tasting the bitterness of finality,

And hearing again the dull permanence,

the thud of an entire life (such an infinity of experience)

Ended;

Then, as the humor seeps out

Into the bar

– far from the sterility of the surgical suite

Or onto the freeway

– as we careen home after a 40 hour shift

Or the next day

– while jogging to shake away the pain,

Then, as it squishes underfoot and chokes our breath,

We laugh.

And as we laugh,

We wish our sides would split.

BSW

Medical training,

UVM Burlington VT

1987