Musings, Poetry From Frank Clark, MD

Musings

Dear Mom,

I thank

our village,

the helpers that

cared for your uneven smile

your arms and legs, flaccid

like weak branches

in need of blood

supply filled with

durable strokes of

prayer, poetry, and passion,

a most welcomed paradox

for your wounded brain cells,

drowning in a pool of water,

swelling with panic to relieve

the tension that shines acutely

on your MRI.

Whilst

the poet grieves

with each stroke of my pen

consumed by my thoughts

and my fears of your memory

fading away like sand.

Be well my aging but forever

wise brown sugar.

Dr Clark is an outpatient psychiatrist at Prisma Health-Upstate and clinical associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Greenville. He served on the American Psychiatric Association’s Task Force to Address Structural Racism Throughout Psychiatry, and he currently serves as the Diversity and Inclusion section editor and advisory board member for Psychiatric Times.