it is internship year

1993

Published in Re-humanizing Medicine: A Holistic Framework for Transforming Your Self, Your Practice, and the Culture of Medicine, David Kopacz, Ayni Books, 2013

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it is internship year
I can't write any poetry

I had a dream,

that I wrote some poetry
at the bottom 
of a progress note
and painted a light grey border around it –

I had to tear it off

you can't write poetry
in a patient's chart

I had a dream,

a patient 
was trying to kill me –

I beat his head against the ground
I ran away
I woke up
I had a nervous tic
in my left eye
for one week
even when I didn't drink too much coffee

I can't write poetry this year –

maybe if I could write,
I wouldn't have gotten that tic
I wouldn't have had those dreams