The Last Times

Rainy afternoon,

My blue-eyed high school sweetheart’s

Mascara filled tears

First day of med school

Young guy dies from lung cancer

I give up smoking

Ice cream for my mom

Face frozen by Parkinsons

Chocolate smears her cheeks

I kiss his forehead

My father in hospital

Dead the next morning

At the terminal

Daughter’s new red backpack bobs

Toward the China gate

A tearful handshake

Steps shuffle out the doorway

My career closes

Dr Berlin has been writing a poem about his experience of being a doctor every month for the past 28 years in Psychiatric Times in a column called “Poetry of the Times.” He is an instructor in psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts. His latest book is Tender Fences.