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Reflections

Father's Journey

Correspondence: Joseph J. Fins, M.D., F.A.C.P., Division of Medical Ethics, Weill Cornell Medical College, 435 East 70th Street Suite 4-J, New York, New York 10021, USA. Telephone: 212-746-4246; Fax: 212-746-8738; e-mail: jjfins{at}med.cornell.edu

Received November 1, 2007; accepted for publication November 9, 2007.

Father missed the family meeting.

Reproached by staff,

Their scorn,

Misinformed of motive or Circumstance.

Daughter sunny, tho' jaundiced eye,

The avascular hollow within

Festering errant cells

And abscessed sinusoids.

Mother silent and unaware,

Alone in idiom,

Sequestered from knowledge,

This mothering child,

Instructed by Father not to tell.

She waits, for another self-serving bolus of a toxic mix,

No barefoot doctors for her, tethered to unmonitored monitors,

This poor child on distant shores ...

But now, right now,

this moment,

An urgent need to talk.

Despite America's best,

Scans too sad to speak,

Woeful and grim.

This precocious teen,

Made wise by a mass,

Wondering ... Will it be painful?

Unable to say no,

Awaiting her Dad,

Confident of his embrace ...

Lunch hour past, deliveries done,

Dad departs,

Chinatown for tony North,

His bicycle parked at hospital gate ...

With a brush of her brow,

A weak smile,

And deep sigh.

Their scorn fades for this

Aproned dad,

Who comforts silently,

Bringing permission,

And a tender kiss,

Good night ...

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