Neurology Outpatients
The consultant’s room
a gallery
exhibiting the scans;
my head
an apple sliced,
my core on public view.
To launch the show
an invited few
stand round, comment
on the pictures,
discuss design,
flaws in execution.
I have no trained eye
to appraise
the work of art.
My interest more visceral,
I await
their verdict.
About this poem
Gill Garrett trained as a nurse and a teacher, lecturing and writing on elderly care for many years. In retirement she has begun to write more creatively; the winner of the poetry section of the Gloucestershire Writers Network competition in 2013, she has read her work several times at the Cheltenham Literature Festival and at many other venues. She blogs at gillgarrett.blogspot.com.
This poem is one of the editors’ highlighted selection of poems from an open call for readers’ proposals for the second edition of Tools of the Trade: Poems for new doctors.