Needle sticks and night call,
Hep B burrowing skin,
bad smells, deep wounds,
death, dying, dead wood
at committee meetings,
downward mobility,
delinquent dictations,
Medicare audits, M&M
conference, ombudsmen,
bureaucrats, fucking
bureaucrats, disease advocates
stretching my day
an hour past dark—
but these are nothing
compared to the dismal,
distorted lens
Medicine clamps on
our eyes, the vision
of life as disaster—
motorcycles as donor devices,
rock music and hearing loss,
sunshine and skin cancer,
deer and Lyme disease,
ice cream and steak
just preludes to the CCU.