poemranker ::An Understanding Woman by Dovina

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Free verse № 138322

An Understanding Woman

by Dovina

Member since 2004 · Posted 5 Feb 2006 · 20 comments

Between us hangs a mistake, outcome of a choice, a guess gone wrong. Outside her room, options weigh, reactions vie. I take a breath. Fever and nausea brought her, lab results equivocal, abdominal scan inconclusive. She failed to jump when I pressed her belly. White blood count suggested infection. Appendicitis hardly fit the pattern. She looked sick, in a characteristic way, I saw once when the thing had burst. I opened her and remember my squint. Appendix normal, I searched her entrails. Diverticulitis, colon infection, not needing surgery. Bad judgment? Malfeasance? Shall I say the truth, or spare the pain? I open the door.

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6 votes so far. Yours would make 7.6 votes so far

20 comments

[10] ALChemy 5-Feb-06/4:47 PM Reply
Some men can break a woman's heart with surgical skill.
[n/a] Dovina › ALChemy 6-Feb-06/11:48 AM Reply
Or with negligence, malfeasance, or inattention. But what really gets to her is his lying about it. Men are like doctors who must never intimate that they are at fault, lest the confession wind up in court as damning evidence in a black-and-white-morality tale. At most they might say, “I’m sorry that things didn’t go as well as we had hoped.” The tort system makes adversaries of patient and physician, man and woman, and pushes each to offer heavily slanted versions of events.
[8] Angelicasassy 5-Feb-06/6:49 PM Reply
I really like this, it is quite powerful.
[n/a] Dovina › Angelicasassy 6-Feb-06/11:49 AM Reply
Sounds like you’ve never been personally involved, judging from the word “quite.”
[8] zodiac 5-Feb-06/8:54 PM Reply
This is an exact description of tonight's "Grey's Anatomy".
[10] ALChemy › zodiac 6-Feb-06/5:48 AM Reply
Damn and I thought she meant something less profound.
[n/a] Dovina › ALChemy 6-Feb-06/11:52 AM Reply
I did.
[8] zodiac › Dovina 6-Feb-06/12:38 PM Reply
The range of things less-profound than "Code Black" includes all other known things. You are excused, but strongly encouraged to write your next poem about "Code Black", instead of just writing about Blacks.
[n/a] Dovina › zodiac 6-Feb-06/12:49 PM Reply
Not having a research team to provide all references to my chosen subject, catalogued and outloined, I must stick to other known things.
[10] ALChemy › zodiac 6-Feb-06/3:39 PM Reply
You certainly must admire the gall to build an episode around something as ridiculous as accidentally firing and injecting a bazooka shell into yourself. Now if Richard Gere had done it I would have bought the premise entirely.
[8] zodiac › ALChemy 6-Feb-06/4:30 PM Reply
We'd already decided "Code Black" meant explosives, but were at a loss to figure out how they'd reasonably handle it. The 'accidental' Code Black seemed like kind of a cop-out. And unreasonable.
[10] ALChemy › zodiac 6-Feb-06/11:48 PM Reply
It differs depending where you are. Some places even use a different color code. Way back when I worked at Sam's Club the codes were; Black:Dangerous weather or blackout, Red:Fire, Orange:Chemical spill, Blue:Medical emergency, Brown:Bomb threat, Code Adam was a missing child- and so on and so on. The procedures differ as well. It's funny, if you're in Sam's Club and you hear "Code Black" you're going to remember that show and run out of the building and probably into a tornado or something.
[n/a] Dovina › zodiac 6-Feb-06/11:51 AM Reply
Yes, you can tell from how Grey uses words like “entrails” and “the thing burst”
[8] zodiac › Dovina 6-Feb-06/12:36 PM Reply
She does. She's got a way with words, for a doctor.
[n/a] Dovina › zodiac 6-Feb-06/12:43 PM Reply
I thought you meant Gray's Anatomy.
[8] zodiac › Dovina 6-Feb-06/2:43 PM Reply
Oh, like every night I get a different anatomical text with funny line-drawings in it, and your poem just happened to remind me of the plot of the one I was reading that night? The tv-show is spelled "Grey's", the text "Gray's". That is only one of several differences between the two.
[8] amanda_dcosta 6-Feb-06/12:28 PM Reply
It's good. I liked it.

By the way... congrats. You hit a double century! This is your 200th post on poemranker. Keep up the good work!
[n/a] Dovina › amanda_dcosta 6-Feb-06/3:30 PM Reply
By Job you’re right – 200! I hadn’t noticed. I’m sick, really sick! When Shuushin posted his hundredth, he called it Centennial Man. How about Withered Old Woman?
[n/a] Dovina › Dovina 6-Feb-06/3:33 PM Reply
May I ask why there are two votes from your IP, a 4 and an 8?
[8] amanda_dcosta › Dovina 7-Feb-06/1:31 AM Reply
Dovina, I am at a loss as to why there are two votes on my IP add. It could be because I'm using a proxy server. Other than that what could it be, cause I voted an 8 and am clueless about the 4. If you do know why, fill me in. It's not from my side anyway.