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AMERICAN SONNET FOR AN ADDICT |
Joseph Zarconi
The doctor drags his learning flock
into my room
because they know
that I am a museum
of end-stage liver failure
I have all the signs
come, children, see the stigmata
of the hopeless drunk
in for the umpteenth time
on her way to the grave
see my crawling spiders
feel my shifting dullness
snotty little liver
rosy palms, wasted limbs
all the signs of what I’ve done
Before they lay on their hands
the doctor asks if I know
what happened to my liver
I was a liver alright, Doc
two fifths a day
more on weekends
and then he asked me
when the drinking started
I told him about my little boy
off from school
playing with his brother
over at the big construction site
how he won the race into the bottom
of a huge gravel pit
his brother conceding the victory
as he watched the truck
plowing gravel into the pit
I told him how my older boy
ended up in a psych hospital
was never the same
after he lost his brother
how my husband ran away from it
from us
how they all were lost
as the truck pulled away
That’s when I started to drink, Doc
and ever since
a lot
Joseph Zarconi is distinguished university professor emeritus at the Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown, Ohio, where he recently retired as clinical director for health humanities education. He is a retired nephrologist and active educator, Zarconi, who is co-author of two books on narrative in health care, co-authored peer-reviewed work on topics relating to medical education, narrative medical practice, narrative ethics, humanism and professionalism, cultural consciousness, close reading, and social justice. A member of the NEOMED Master Teacher Guild, Zarconi has been recognized as a Master Teacher by the American College of Physicians.