by Deborah Bayer | Apr 11, 2023 | A to Z Challenge 2023, Poems, Poems (2004 - 2015)
(An excerpt from my memoir-in-progress) The Hospice Medical Director role gave me an excuse to bring poetry into my work as a physician. I selected a poem to begin every weekly meeting, sometimes one of my own. One day I read a poem by Mark Doty, “The Embrace,”...
by Deborah Bayer | Mar 9, 2023 | Chapbook Poems, Poems, Poems (2004 - 2015)
Fertilizer: A Sonnet She plows the furrows, pushes past her wants. Can she imagine rows and columns, summed on spreadsheets as the basis for her work? Or, does she dig down to her ballet class, dance to Tchaikovsky all in lacy-white tulle stitched with plastic violets...
by Deborah Bayer | Jan 26, 2023 | Chapbook Poems, Poems, Poems (2004 - 2015)
Window to the Bay Sometimes I ask my patient, can you smell it? Of course, she can’t. Necrosis happens slowly, a little more each day. There’s time to adjust. My birthday was weeks ago. The flowers are dead. A clear square vase sits on the kitchen table, its...
by Deborah Bayer | Jan 19, 2023 | Chapbook Poems, Poems, Poems (2004 - 2015)
I’m Still Your Doctor I happen to be there when you’re admitted. My job is to keep you alive at any cost. Lucky for you that I have experience & I’m really good at diagnosing the opportunistic diseases of AIDS. So when you have the bad luck to have a...
by Deborah Bayer | Jan 12, 2023 | Chapbook Poems, Poems, Poems (2004 - 2015)
Pucker The gods line up to kiss my left breast. Divine dimples appear as I raise my left arm. A star appears on my windshield too when a wayward stone strikes on the expressway, loud as a gun’s report. I duck under glass, wounded again. Asterisk marks the spot....
by Deborah Bayer | Jan 5, 2023 | Chapbook Poems, Poems, Poems (2004 - 2015)
Bird Neck What’s my basic unit of currency? It’s not dollars. Each patient makes a withdrawal. What’s the exchange rate? It’s not Medicare payments. Each prayer makes a deposit. Fifteen years since he tested poz. His first doctor visit with me is supposed to last...
