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SURGERY LIMERICKS

6/19/2020

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“I’m so sorry.” I heard those words from the medical professionals—the folks who know what glioblastoma is, and its unstoppable nature. Then, along came COVID-19 and the Corona pandemic reminding us that there are many ways to die. And we all eventually use one.
Still, you see, the limerick must go on. Limericks are supposed be silly, or at least humorous. I’m only partly successful in that. But when a rhyme from the operating room led to the limerick form, what could I do? Then I was stuck with the five lines “poems”.
They are personal. It started because of a rhyme, the urology surgeon’s name and the nature of the robotic surgery she was so skilled at demanded “poetry.”
Because the first poem revealed itself as limerick, I was stuck with that form and meter. I wrote another after eye surgery, so now I’m cornered. I have to commemorate all surgical procedure, five line each. First up, Dr. Lisa Bland, Urology Surgeon. Here you go:

I once thought my bladder was too little;
Dashing often to privy to piddle.
    Sent to see good Doctor Bland
     She
took out my prostate gland.
That cancer’s down. All’s well, though I dribble.
 
That cancer has stayed out of the way for years. I was told there was a tiny spot that she couldn’t remove, so we monitored it until I was living here at a retirement facility—now with a Do Not Resuscitate advice.
 
Eye surgery would bring new fears. Dr. Jacek Kotowski is meticulous in detail and at fixing vision problems. He calmed my nerves with his competence in all of the details.
 
Poke inside my eye? I made a tough decision
To improve eye health required tiny incision.
     New lens for cloudy quickly exchanged,
     And retinal membrane rearranged,
Doctor K does all with amazing precision. 
    
OR, and a little better,
 
Poke inside my eye? It may improve my vision.
In trepidation I made the right decision.
     New lens for cloudy quickly exchanged,
     Then retinal membrane rearranged,
Doctor K does all with amazing precision. 
 
Back with Dr. Kotowski and others a few years later. We’ll soon include Dr. Marwan Massouh and Dr. Kenneth Brewington:
 
Doctor K felt quite certain I’d had a stroke
But glioblastoma is never a joke
     Doctor B did a brain biopsy,
     I’m thankful it’s not yet autopsy.
That comes. This cancer has a way to kill folk.
 
If you can find anything funny in brain surgery, your sense of humor is more sophisticate than mine.
 
Doctor Brewington’s biopsy said
Within the year you’ll likely be dead.
     Now I treasure each day
     With some telephone play
And take Doctor Massouh’s prescribed med.
 
I guess when Dr. Nathaniel Readal pulled a stone from my kidney, it’s surgery.
 
Sharp pain came suddenly with portents of doom.
I knew I would need the emergency room.
     Consultation there
     Led to treatment where
Doc R pulled stone while I dreamt in deep gloom.

And that's enough. Can I be done with surgeries now? I don't want to run out of rhyming words. 
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    Author

    I retired from active ministry in the United Methodist Church in 2012. Then I sat at my computer and wrote down the novel that had been churning in my head for many years, and published "I've Seen Dry" through my Wheatgrass Publishing imprint. Now writing had become a nice habit, so I do it every day. I completed my second novel in the spring and published in July 2014. 

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