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A Good Doctor Must (A Poem)

Originally published on Medscape Blogs on June 8, 2022

Last week, after the multiple recent tragedies in our nation, I found myself turning to my laptop to write the feelings that were too big. But instead of my usual prose essay form, what came out was a poem. I also had been thinking a lot about the early pandemic phrase “scream inside your heart”; the following is what emerged:

Scream inside your heart
Scream inside your heart
A good doctor must always keep the screams inside

Too many bullet holes in kids
Too few vaccines in arms
A good doctor must always keep out of politics

Too few patients insured
Too many prior auths
A good doctor must always remain professional

Too many in the waiting rooms
Too few hours in the day
A good doctor must always put themselves last

Too few nurses in the rooms
Too many admins in the halls
A good doctor must always maintain the status quo

Scream outside your heart
Scream outside your heart
A good doctor must never keep the screams inside

Published innarrative medicine