SKATING ON THE EDGE OF FLESH
By Richard Fox
One: on Dr. Paul Kalanithi ’s When
Breath Becomes Air
The neurosurgeon.
Cuts to cure.
Midnight rounds/early call,
his wife waits for her
consultation.
Ecstasy, saw slicing
skull, a scalpel’s rivulet.
Danger in the drill,
thrill in the skill.
Sensitive hands, eyes that see
what only he can see,
hope for goners.
Lung cancer killed the
neurosurgeon.
I have malignancies in my lungs.
We share the trinity:
diagnosis, treatment,
death.
