MCPHERSON SQUARE TRILOGY | Andrew Murdock

1. See No Evil

I approach the woman
hunkered under a hunter green
umbrella. Shielding herself from
the rain, the chill, the raw.

I smile and reach out to hand
her a sanitary pack.
My shoulder gets pulled back.
“Not her.” It’s then I see

the needle in her arm,
and the shaking
rattling her body.

2. Speak No Evil

Proverbs bellow from the men
gathered under black umbrellas.
Their words radiate
through the park.

The prayers are not kindling
for the man who lies across the street,
cowering under wet blankets
unable to move.

And we want to get him shelter,
but moving is agony,
and he can’t afford the train,
and we think it would be unsafe
to let a stranger in our car.
And we go down the street,
to see if the shelter is open.
And we get back defeated,
and we tell the man,
“The shelter is closed,” that we
can pay for his Septa, “We can help you up.”
But he does not want to move.
And he wants us to stay,
but we need to move on.
So, we leave him in the rain
with a thin foil blanket.

The rain taps on the foil as we leave -
the percussion accentuating
the self-righteous melody of the clergy
and the groan of the train
in the distance.

3. Hear No Evil

We rejoin our group
surrounding a man
lying on the concrete
silent.

I see our professor crouched to him.
His chest doesn’t move. “Sir, are you ok?”
No response.

We are statues
looking down upon his slow breaths--
so delicate that the sprinkling
raindrops could make bigger ripples.

The sternal rub elicits no response.
My professor administers Narcan.
He gives it again after minutes pass
of droplets beating on the pavement.

And we wait…
and wait…

And suddenly a gasp rips the quiet.

It must have been disorienting
to be pulled from circling angels
to the circle of solicitous eyes
upon him. But he is unphased.

He gets up and walks away
as if nothing has happened.
As if my arms had not been
lead pipes moments before.

I sigh, alone with my group
rain pittering on pavement.
There would be no
funeral in the square
this Saturday.

Andrew Murdock is a fourth-year medical student at Drexel University College of Medicine. Last year, he completed a research fellowship at Emory University School of Medicine where he used qualitative research methods to explore the experiences of children with inflammatory skin disease and their parents. He graduated from Bates College in 2017 with a major in Biochemistry and a minor in Dance and uses poetry and dance as an emotional outlet and reflective practice to navigate medical training. ‘McPherson Square’ is a trilogy “inspired by my experiences volunteering with a street medicine clinic in Kensington, Philadelphia, a community profoundly affected by homelessness and the opioid epidemic.”