Ward 64 - by
the curtain’s beige and orange checks
/ do nothing to divide us
/
/ when her drip beeps I think it’s mine
/
/ when she hears the…
New Zealand poetry
from ‘Playing God’ - by
10. A note of warning to patients when all else fails
/
/ Sometimes the needle is too blunt.
/ The stethoscope is too quiet.
/ The…
Teddy - by
for a child with leukaemia
/
/ Teddy was not well.
/ Teddy had been feeling sick.
/ Teddy had to go to hospital.
/ Teddy was told that…
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…
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…
Nowhere - by
By the side of the road
/ You unfold your flat earth
/ And consult it for directions.
/
/ Little round towns are threaded
/ Yellow on…
Place - by
Once in a while
/ you may come across a place
/ where everything
/ seems as close to perfection
/ as you will ever need.
/ And striving to…
Mukluk - by
for Kathryn Madill
/
/ What shall we tell them?
/
/ That the sea froze under our mukluks
/ like stretched plastic.
/
/ That tiny ice seeds skittered
/ on the…
Kevin - by
I don’t know where the dead go, Kevin.
/ The one far place I know
/ is inside the heavy radio. If I listen…
Instructions for how to get ahead of yourself while the light still shines - by
If you have a bike, get on it at night
/ and go to the top of the Brooklyn Hill.
/
/ When you reach…
Increasingly sophisticated methods of divination used in the practice of medicine - by
By observing a rooster pecking grain.
/ By the various behaviours of birds.
/ By balancing a stone on a red-hot axe.
/ By the shape…
I Am (1) - by
Every night she wakes and makes
/ herself seem big the way she thumps
/ across the hall. Those footfalls cast
/ a grown-up shadow, minimised
/
/ when…