Corpus Vile - by
Some museums of antiquities store row on row of
/ unnamed skulls. There is a day of reckoning now
/ a plea to…
The Hand that Sees
James Young Simpson: If It Is Our Mission … - by
‘If it is our mission
/ to alleviate suffering
/ as well as to preserve life
/ there should be no conscientious restraint
/
/ and if God has…
From the Hinterland - by
After a visit to the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh and especially for Kazimierz Kuczynski,
/ F.R.C.S. Edinburgh, and his…
The Heart of the House - by
Blackened
/ through lack of care
/ like an old grate
/ raked from the fire,
/ its two wings collar
/ the trapped air
/ and fuse at their lower tips
/ as…
The Case - by
In which river did the fish swim
/ that mistook for a fly a hook on a line
/ so drew its last, that…
Ned Black’s Dream - by
The Misses Nelly to the Burgess surgeon!
/ This very night, a performance
/ Of dissection – flexing leg, belly, supple loin and eye…
To My Surgeon - by
No-one else sees me
/ drowning in the white wave
/ sprinkled with a terrible salt
/
/ invasive lobular carcinoma
/ is difficult to identify
/
/ but you take one…
Head: Sabre Wound - by
The strokes of a sabre
/ on his wan head –
/ those blows repeated
/ in the heat
/ of battle
/ where sabres whirl
/ like flames.
/
/ An attack
/ by a tiger
/ or…
James IV to his Treasurer - by
Oh for Christ’s sake gie the signor his siller.
/ Alchemist my erse, but he’s hermless, is he no?
/ He’ll never blaw us…
In Surgeons’ Hall, Edinburgh - by
Eyeing an African carved leaning tower
/ Of people holding one another up
/ For dear life, childishly I bless that stranger
/
/ Who in a…
Second Tooth - by
The first one came out the week of her birthday.
/ This second tooth’s harder: she pushes
/ and pushes at it with her…
The Eye in the Hand - by
At the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
/
/ My only talent lay in these.
/ My father rubbed his hands together,
/ stared as though…