scope 2009-FINAL.qxd_scope06Final.qxd - SIU School of Medicine

quick ventilator strokes,
and distant conversations
about trivialities
as the ICU attending gazes left
and I, the neurologist, to the right,
past the awkward incongruity
that hovers over the bed and
stalks students and residents in the corners.
And nurses chart the vital signs
or fix the lines
or move about with
squeaky shoes on the shiny floor
while the tape the parents made
for their brain dead baby
plays it over and over and over again
like Beethoven must have done
when he first heard it in his head,
first felt it … in his heart
Michael R. Pranzatelli, M.D.
Department of Neurology
1st Place Poetry
SCOPE 2009
7