From the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh - by
My only talent lay in these.
/ My father rubbed his hands together,
/ stared as though their whorls held codes
/ of thirty years obstetric…
doctors and nurses
The Old Lady - by
Autumn, and the nights are darkening.
The old lady tells us of her past once more.
A brief format to be used when consulting with patients - by
The patient will talk.
/
/ The doctor will talk.
/
/ The doctor will listen while
/ the patient is talking.
/
/ The patient will listen while
/ the…
Night Sister - by
How is it possible not to grow hard,
To build a shell around yourself when you
Have to watch so much pain, and hear it too?
From A Year and a Day: 19 October 1979 – 19 October 1980 - by
To be taken in small doses as required
/
/ October
/
/ 25: Miss G -, born while Queen Victoria was still alive,
/ standing proudly…
A Medical Education - by
for Dr Peter Rothwell
/
/ In obstetrics I learnt that a woman opens swiftly like an elevator door.
/ The body wriggles free…
Tools of the Trade - by
New doctors will be empowered by poems
/ in the pockets of their metaphorical white coats.
/ There at the ready:
/ on early, sweaty,…
Visiting Hour - by
The hospital smell
/ combs my nostrils
/ as they go bobbing along
/ green and yellow corridors.
/
/ What seems a corpse
/ is trundled into a lift and…
To The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (1505-2005) - by
A Welcome
/
/ Sons and daughters of Aesculapius
/ from Doctor & Prof to Mr & Ms,
/ we the citizenry of Auld Reekie
/ celebrate your Quincentenary;
/ James…
The Rafa-Gaza Road 1918 - by
I am looking, as you are, through Henry Wade
/ his eyes, his lens: the Rafa-Gaza road
/ aching towards a sky perhaps grey,…
My Mother’s Body Interrogated By Light - by
This is what happened
/ Someone lifted a grey translucency to the light
/ and held it there
/ seeing the knit fracture in the clavicle
/ the…
Corneal Graft - by
For all the eye specialists I’ve seen – in varying degrees of haziness – over the years,
/ and for the…