A Minuet on Learning New Medical Procedures
‘Nothing whatever, in man, is of so frail a nature as the memory; for it is affected by disease, by injuries, and even by fright; being sometimes partially lost, and at other times entirely so.’
-Pliny the Elder, Natural History: Book VII, Ch. 24
Inserting Nexplanon® through rubber skin,
The ‘Yes, you c-c-can,’
Is from the needle to my hand. My squamous
Faith in doubt is famous
In the self-opinion
My poker face conceals from man’s dominion.
I for my part take aim…
‘You c-c-can’t,’ Professor What’s-her-name
Still taunts me from beyond the grave. His clothing
Says the shot for clotting
Factor function failed, while emesis
Says blood’s a nemesis
To guts sometimes. ‘Frenot-
Omy can help your moms breastfeed a lot,’
He promises my scissors.
A private courage tickles my incisors.
A Ronduet on Tulip Fest in Woodburn, Oregon (April, 2021)
‘It troubled my conscience, he could see, to dupe so many people, my master especially, whenever I played the fool. ‘You mustn’t worry about that,’ he said. ‘The foolish world wants to be duped.’’
-Hans Jakob Christoffel Von Grimmelshausen, The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus
A semilunar lebensraum,
Each petal’s pastel edge. If beauty’s boring,
Ask mystery for its loam
On loan. A spirit with a faulty o-ring
Hates to leave time’s waiting room.
But maybe tales of derring-do, or ramen,
Like this vendor’s, floor
Whatever the season’s a-blamin’
For making death too sure
Of itself…Tulips tutor every Brahmin.
It was like hearing ferrets speak:
Seeing one walk by leashed just now. A wintery
Year must hate this week:
The ebb of sleep and flow of light; the winery
And bloom, they say, are both in peak.
My daughter slides down the lit up slide; a beacon
On a trampoline,
She helps the clouds and songbirds beckon
Sun and rain, while the wind
Conspires to steal me with the donuts’ bacon.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jake Sheff is a pediatrician and US Air Force veteran. He’s published a full-length collection of formal poetry, “A Kiss to Betray the Universe” (White Violet Press), along with three chapbooks: “Looting Versailles” (Alabaster Leaves Publishing), “The Rites of Tires” (SurVision) and “The Seagull’s First One Hundred Seguidillas” (Alien Buddha Press).
Image generated on Magic Studio
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