Polarity

A lot of moments happen in one day at a family medicine clinic. As doctors—propelled by the multitude of needs of those we care for, always moving to the next room, having not fully recovered from the previous encounter—we rarely stop to appreciate the polarity of feelings that accompany us. This poem explores that juxtaposition of emotions.

Grief and Beauty

I learn—

her heart stopped

sometime

around

Five—

through a discharge note,

as I sift through a

multitude of papers

letting me know of

flare-ups,

and medication changes,

and placement of pacemakers

in those I am supposed to protect.

I have no time

to let it sink,

to let it

really sink.

Her name—

it still appears in a time slot

somewhere in the future of next week:

“Blood pressure follow-up.”

I have to let somebody know …

somebody has to know.

And as my mind drifts back

to here

and now,

I rush next door

where young and bleary mother

glows.

In hands—

newly arrived and perfect being

so novel to the world.

And as I listen

to his heartbeat

so strong, so new, so willing:

I’m overwhelmed by all this Grief

and all this Beauty—

how all of it

can be so coexisting,

so concurrent.