A visit from The Healing Muse: 'Making Rounds' and 'Contagion'
Deirdre Neilen, PhD (photo by Jim Howe)
Deirdre Neilen, PhD, shares a selection from Upstate‘s literary journal, “The Healing Muse,” every Sunday on “HealthLink on Air.” Neilen is the editor of the annual publication featuring fiction, poetry, essays and visual art focused on themes of medicine, illness, disability and healing. Read The Healing Muse Cafe Blog.
Deirdre Neilen, PhD: Dr. Peter Cronkright is an associate professor of internal and family medicine here at Upstate Medical University. He gave us a poem that reminds us we have come through medically and socially challenging times before. His poem "Making Rounds" gives physicians, in particular, a reason to hope.
"Making Rounds"
Virus taking hold
Calling the shots
Truth be told
Don't sleep a lot
Scary
Distance and hygiene
Not enough
Where to lean
Times are tough
Memory
Having learned
At rapid pace
Classroom turned
Face-to-face
Flurry
Am I ready
For the call
Remain steady
Exposed to all
Reality
Long white coat
Serves as shield
Carrying notes
Virus revealed
Deadly
Gather round
Foot of the bed
Stand your ground
While it spreads
Worry
Point fingers
So much unknown
Panic lingers
Our limits shown
Sorry
Intern year
'83
Lots to fear
HIV
History
James McCague is a physician and writer from Pittsburgh. His poem "Contagion" is similarly eerie in that we do not know what disease we are facing.
"Contagion"
"The mask becomes you," so he said, and could not see her smile.
"It's probably your eyes," he said, "lips often are disguise."
It was a yellow hospital mask with a center stain of red,
Betraying lipstick she earlier had nonetheless put on.
By now she felt a warming blush extending up her face,
And she wondered if it would peek over the mask's edge
Like an early dawn over a horizon.
And so she stood there, like Juliet on the balcony,
