In My Exam Room
by Risa Denenberg
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
The chronically well
queue at my exam room, hoping
for a visitation. They don’t feel well,
but that’s another matter. They don’t yet
know what it is to be ill. If they ask me,
which seldom happens, I recommend
reading Magic Mountain or Cancer Ward
Then again, they do solicit remedies.
What should they do for their megrims,
lethargy, catarrh, lumbago, vertigo?
I can only tell them there is no cure
for ordinary good health, the discomforts
life offers gamely. I encourage them
to wait patiently.
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The Lives You Touch Publications
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