CMAJ • October 7, 2008; 179 (8). doi:10.1503/cmaj.080462.
© 2008 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors
All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association.
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The Left Atrium

Poem

Someone glimmering

Deirdre Maultsaid, M Ed

Project Manager, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC

These mallards quack
from their greasy fake pond

As a woman goes
soaring off the top
floor of the hospital parking lot.

Over the white chapel
with the rent-a-groom
in the rent-a-tux
twirled topiary growing from his head
in every cell phone photo.

Also in the photo,
the flying woman shows
her outstretched hand
and something glimmering —
could it be a smile?

Someone told the woman to go
she was ill
sweating
thought she was foul water, nothing but scum
always a bridesmaid.

Maybe the ducks see.
The nurse, off shift, fumbles for her keys.
The doc is flying, wingless
from primary care
to patient
to committee.
This is team work.

The bride is turned away,
a smile decaying under the spackle of her hair
under the stiff white tulle.
She is looking at the church spire
smiling
just as the photographer ordered.

The doctor ordered the woman to go home.
She slipped and dragged her way
up six flights
and jumped free,
a bouquet with no one to catch her.

The groom sees; see there —
in the wedding photo
marrying the blue sky
not the bride, not the bride.

Is that the woman?
Is that the creamy
and comforting
tip of her love?


Figure 27
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  		Photo by: photos.com

 

Footnotes

Ms. Maultsaid is the author of This Crisis, These Blessings: Essays and has previously published works in Prairie Fire, Canadian Women's Studies Journal, The Danforth Review, Other Voices and Spirituality and Health International among other publications.





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Mental Health from the Inside
Mark Latowsky
cmaj.ca, 27 Oct 2008 [Full text]
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