Attending
He loses every case — it’s hospice, he knows.
But isn’t medicine supposed to mean
saving people, healing them, saying no
to death? The right technique, the right machine,
the right dose of pills — isn’t that what a doctor
should know? Coax fire from the spark of life —
is that what doctors do? Yet no one walks
out of here. Nothing gets fixed with a knife.
They’re all goners here. Every one. So when
did doctor stop meaning teacher — is that
where we went wrong? Best to call him attending
physician — here to bear witness. What
else can the white coat mean, if not surrender —
tending what is broken, what is not.
for Derek Kerr
© Michael Fleming
Brattleboro, Vermont
April 2013
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