In My Exam Room
by Risa Denenberg
Desperado
When pain pulls ahead,
leaving meaning in the dust —
the sort of hurt that binds behind eyes
and shouts that you are a rotten nothing
while the world doesn't care a whit
and no one is worth redeeming —
there comes a moment
you would crush heroin
and snort it, even needle it,
if you had it in your possession.
Table of Contents
In exam room 1
Parkinson’s
Lumberjacks
In exam room 2
In exam room 5
When I'm not thinking about my patients
The night was long with pain
Pain Scale
In exam room 4
Chronic Pain
What pain means to me
Lives of elders
A Plea for Touch
We do not speak of death
I first saw cancer
On the morning of the second day
Prognosis
Lessons for dying
As death approaches
Hours to days
Going first
“Even the gorgeous royal chariots wear out”
“After a long battle”
Elegy on the mourning of my death
About a Lump
Pushcart Nominations
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The Lives You Touch Publications
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