Month: June 2017
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Letter to Pa
Charles H. Halsted Davis, California, USA James A. Halsted, MD (left) and Charles H. Halsted, MD (right), 1984 I heard our tire chains clacking on slushy streets, then waited freezing, short legs dangling, watching you—warm coat against the cold, your bag in hand—walk through the opened door, return after half an hour with a fresh…
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Original Water Colors, Gallery
University of Illinois, College of Medicine Cook County Hospital Masonic Hospital, Chicago.
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Sir James Paget
Born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in 1814, James Paget was one of the outstanding surgeons of his time, remembered for his description of osteitis deformans (Paget’s disease of bone) and of Paget’s disease of the breast. He has been regarded as the surgical equivalent of William Osler in medical education and of Rudolph Virchow in…
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Caleb Hillier Parry
Despite a successful medical practice in the once fashionable town of Bath, Caleb Parry would be largely forgotten were it not that in 1786 he reported on five cases of exophthalmic goiter. This was almost fifty years earlier than the better-known description by Robert Graves, leading to a later suggestion that Graves’ disease should really…
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Reluctance
Ken Williams Cambria, CA, USA Agent Orange being sprayed during the Vietnam War Triple canopy jungle stripped bare by Agent Orange Reluctance weighing his heels slowing his pace doctor enters Face gray with worry body tight with knowledge my wife’s grip tightens Blood count wrong responding not they’ve done all says he, also, “You…
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White coats
Ken Williams Cambria, California, USA Image of Phan Thi Kim Phuc burned by napalm during the Vietnam War. Photo by Nick Ut. The Devil’s Breath: Napalm explosion Waiting White coats hustle by nurses of compassion their gentle, sideway smiles frozen combating war’s legacy Blood counts fall Platelets White cells Red cells M.I.A. Agent Orange…
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White Coats
Ken Williams Cambria, California, United States Waiting White coats hustle by nurses of compassion their gentle, sideway smiles frozen combating war’s legacy Blood counts fall Platelets White cells Red cells M.I.A. Agent Orange rages Gulf War Syndrome Agent Orange, Blue other colors, deadly rainbow Burn off trash heaps pick our poison Plastic tubes stained…
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Poetry Series
Simon Perchik East Hampton, NY, USA Rothko Squared by Brett Jordan Without an address your hands lean across –another crease making the final correction though this note still opens out windblown, fingerprints everywhere on her lips on her breasts, on the bed sheet folded and over, warmed for its nakedness and side by side…