A Few Things I Learned - Poem: The Genius of Birds - Poem: Priscilla Remembers

  Karl Rickels, MD, who wrote a story in the last Compass on What Makes me Happy, had his intern send me a story from JAMA about research into lithium.

As you know, lithium ruined my kidneys and I had a kidney t plant, courtesy of my daughter Sarah. We celebrated our fifth KidneyVersity at Reading Terminal and Z Barnes.

The JAMA article stated that psychiatrists are wary of prescribing lithium - good! they should be! - but, said the story, it is safe and should be prescribed. It's also an antisuicidal agent and when Larry Schwartz took me off it w/o weaning me off, I was suicidal for a whole year.

That's how I know what it feels like to wanna take your own life.

An adjoining article talked about physician suicides, esp. in medical school! Every single day, one physician takes his or her own life.

I know of a retired physician who did indeed do the deed. A wonderful human being.

Brought this book to the TNT restaurant with me this morning.

I meant to eat at the Hatboro Dish, but I made the wrong turn, so ended up eating here.

Forgot my diabetes needle, so injected when I got home.

There's a terrible story I heard while eating.... about some bad sauce.... but I won't repeat it.

Instead, I'll share a poem I wrote quickly, for my Facebook friends.



THE GENIUS OF BIRDS

"The Genius of Birds" by
Jennifer Ackerman says
it "baffles the imagination
to think the tiny flashlike
chickadee" could be the
ancestor of flying dinosaurs
with feathers!

Do the chickadees who
dwell in my green bird
house outside my
window know this?

Mais oui. In the
early morn, they puff
out their sea-grey
chest and sing a
morning hymn, reciting
the deuteronomy of
feathered things.

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Went to Hair Cuttery. My stylist was Priscilla. I'll write you a poem, I said, and here tis.

PRISCILLA REMEMBERS

She remembers the country
she and Mama left when she was only
five, the aqua-green house mirrored
the color of water on the beach,
where the curly-head dug her little
toesies deep in the sand

Mountains everywhere!
Mama, they reach
to the stars! They lived
with grandfather on his
farm, the brown eggs they
ate for breakfast
so good they could
pass for dessert

Trees were many:
mango, guava, banana
she'd pick up a stick
rise up on her tippie-
toes and down would
fall a yellow-red
mango into her arms

How she cried when
they moved to America
and still cries when
she thinks about the
land of her birth
Costa Rica, Costa Rica

She visits every year.