Medical Education

What they taught
in school was not
what we needed,
and what we needed
(they said)
could not be conveyed.

So we struck out
on our own
and learned
from our patients
the lessons we needed
to know:

how to break
bad news,
place our own comfort last,
and say nothing
when nothing
more could be said.

And we returned
what they taught
to others
who learned
what we knew
was almost enough.