March 2015
I finished medical school, married, had a family, completed a residency in pathology and then became a psychiatrist and poet. I have written two books with cartoonist Jim Whiting--The Cabala of the Animals and A Toolbox of Paradoxes, and one book of poetry called Incisions. I write a blog (www.drsimonsays.blogspot.com) that incorporates psychiatry, culture, and my own psyche.
Street Woman with Red Blanket
Perched on a white pail,
puffing on a cigarette,
exhaling a thin grey
whisper of smoke.
Her proud demeanor says all:
I trusted the world to be
warm. A red blanket of hope
now rests on the lap
of my body and soul.
Fish out of Water
Dad showed his interest
in us kids by clipping
articles from the New York Times
Clipping was safer
than kissing, or brushing
flesh on flesh
The coelacanth, a fish thought
to be extinct was rediscovered
trapped in a fisherman’s net
We envision his lunge
eons ago from sea to land,
unwieldy body, sprouting
lungs and appendages
Like Dad, unmoored,
an outsider, searching
for his spot on earth
Dad, an odd fish. we
five kids agree, days
after the newsprint fades
Today we ask: what drove
the coelacanth from the sea?
What spurred dad
to leave us, his family?
Perhaps it was curiosity
that led to risk this
unraveling, the long and
arduous journey
to end in a curious,
dubious finale.
C O E L A C A N T H
Thought to have been long extinct, scientists discovered these "living fossils" in 1938.
Photograph by Gerard Lacz/Animals Animals—Earth Scenes
Thought to have been long extinct, scientists discovered these "living fossils" in 1938.
Photograph by Gerard Lacz/Animals Animals—Earth Scenes