Art by Mimi Kim, MS4
on morning rounds
he arrives
like a postman
in the rain
he has
good news
or bad news
but always
fast news
for patients,
because the Pony Express
is for speed
his paper hat
is crooked
and he flashes
glances at
the sick
dispassionately
as if
they — the ones
for whom he
brings his
messages —
weigh his pack
with stones
because in
the operating room
with
rind of tumor
and
juice of gallbladder
and a
flexible sigmoidoscope
flexing
he has found
his frontier
horses hitched
to IV trees
his scalpel
sips cool water
from a spring
