In My Exam Room
by Risa Denenberg
In exam room 3
She limps in, humming a dirge.
She was doing slightly better
until last Wednesday when
she got jammed up
in the sheets, fell out of bed
and landed on her shoulder.
Her sadness is a scrim
I cannot penetrate.
A beam of confidence
I don’t possess lights
an image of vertebrae that won’t mend.
I follow the path she guides me down,
and spot a scatter-shot image
of neurons that fire and fire
at the brain, daily
creating more pain.
She wants to know
why she falls and
where did her marriage go?
Table of Contents
In exam room 1
Parkinson’s
Lumberjacks
In exam room 2
In exam room 5
When I'm not thinking about my patients
The night was long with pain
Pain Scale
In exam room 4
Chronic Pain
What pain means to me
Lives of elders
A Plea for Touch
We do not speak of death
I first saw cancer
On the morning of the second day
Prognosis
Lessons for dying
As death approaches
Hours to days
Going first
“Even the gorgeous royal chariots wear out”
“After a long battle”
Elegy on the mourning of my death
About a Lump
Pushcart Nominations
Copyright © 2015
The Lives You Touch Publications
All rights reserved.