Theresa Wyatt
Poet’s statement: After a diagnosis of Neurofibromatosis, Type 2, Theresa returned to writing poetry as a therapeutic venue. Her poems have appeared in The Healing Muse, Kaleidoscope, the American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Medicine, and the Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, among others. She lives near the beautiful shores of Lake Erie in Derby, New York with her husband.
and disease as dna turns bestial suspended in the wings like fog and from a distance some say flowers children bring by day can sometimes best the odors during midnight rounds when seamlessly moonlight and morphine mix a perfume so sublime that patients have been known to drift through the wanderlust of time exchanging cotton gowns and blankets for shiny satin with blue sheen ah, the sweet delirium of dream all this before the dawn advances charging bareback through the morning light lifting patients’ eyelids slowly to a vastly different sight |
Dear Doctor Look into my eyes and know the dread of the long needle close by, a reluctant spine lies in wait of your tap Hold onto this glance and remember the deep well of tears within the anxious trinity of patient, parent and hope Realize that we understand your heart obscured must remain hidden however moved See through countless scans and charts the behemoth that is sickness and disordered despair Believe that healing flows from hand to hand and that dragon diseases will only sometimes be slain Move forward in the passage between patient and dragon Allow us the sword. |
The author gratefully acknowledges that “Sedated” first appeared in March, 2008 on the Cell 2 Soul Humane Healthcare Blog.
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“Dear Doctor” first appeared in Blood and Thunder, The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Fall 2007 |
THERESA WYATT is a retired teacher and former visual artist who specialized in the student at risk. Her diverse career spanned a study in Siena, Italy, to teaching positions in Tehran, Iran, the New York State Department of Corrections and the Seneca Nation of Indians.
Highlighted in Frontispiece Winter 2010 – Volume 2, Issue 1
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