THE MATTER OF THE HEART
A cardio-vascular consultant
told me I had subtle abnormalities
of the heart: a tendency, possibly,
to soften too readily, be swayed
too easily, feed on fantasy, harden
like the Pharaoh’s; be of kings, of lead, of oak,
of darkness; bleed for my country, belong
to Daddy; be a lonely hunter;
be displayed on my sleeve; be in my mouth,
in the Highlands, left in ‘Frisco, buried
at Wounded Knee; like Luther’s, who feared his
was like a ship upon a stormy sea
driven by winds from heaven’s four corners.
By David Selzer
arthur kemelman
January 25, 2012I very much enjoyed this poem, if for no other reason than the attitude it displays towards doctors and specialists and their too frequently pompous pronouncements.
Tim Ellis
January 27, 2012A witty appropriation of common expressions. Nothing wrong with using cliches if you can twist them to an original purpose like this!
Howard Gardener
February 28, 2012What’s even better is that I suspect this would go over the heads of most cardio-vascular consultants. Their territory is the purely physical, as opposed to your own – the lyrical.