Here’s the poem which injected my life with an interest in reflecting through art to cope with some of the intensity of clerkship…
They’ve told us about blue bloaters before.
They are managed with SABAs, anticholinergics, steroids and antimicrobials.
Other prescriptions include nutrition, exercise and chest physiotherapy.
Oxygen? Well, let’s give ‘er a try.
But your eyes bulge unblinking.
Broccoli, 10 mile walks and deep belly breathing, no more.
Epinephrine pumping, airway inserted.
Your pH keeps dwindling.
Breasts jerk, dance rhythmically.
Contrast green waves on screen, severe brady.
My arms tired, arrest with the call.
The irony of “Staying Alive”.
Efforts, wishes. Don’t touch at the blue.
Husband through curtains for unexplained farewells.
Thromboemboli, myopathies, medicalese.
Vanish to sobs, untreatably raw.