In My Exam Room

by Risa Denenberg

$15 US
Chapbook - 29 poemsChapbooks.html

Table of Contents


The chronically well

In exam room 1

Parkinson’s

In exam room 3

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

Desperado

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”

Three-Part Breath

Elegy on the mourning of my death

About a Lump

The chronically well


queue at my exam room, hoping

for a visitation. They don’t feel well,

but that’s another matter. They don’t yet

know what it is to be ill. If they ask me,

which seldom happens, I recommend

reading Magic Mountain or Cancer Ward


Then again, they do solicit remedies.

What should they do for their megrims,

lethargy, catarrh, lumbago, vertigo?

I can only tell them there is no cure

for ordinary good health, the discomforts

life offers gamely. I encourage them

to wait patiently.

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The Lives You Touch Publications

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