Jagged shards of lightning playfully dance across the horizon,
their shrieks of war struggling to keep up …
I hesitantly about-face and land my gaze upon his ethereal face.
What bliss he found.
What agony he lost.
Death had not arrived unannounced.
Instead, he had invited Him, as a lover woos to a picnic,
with a fresh baguette in one arm and a bottle of Cheval Blanc in the other.
No living will.
Only a scrupulously prepared timetable of dog feedings and walks, preaching uncompromising adherence to this scripture.
“Amen.”
Causeofdeath: Respiratoryarrestsecondarytorespiratorydistresssecondarytomorphineoverdose.
Aka: Deliverance
Poetry Thursdays is a weekly newsletter that highlights poems by medical students and physicians. This initiative is led by Slavena Salve Nissan at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. If you are interested in contributing, please contact Slavena.
Contributing Writer
St. Matthew's University School of Medicine
Farhan Shah is a Class of 2018 medical student at St. Matthew's University, School of Medicine. He graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a Bachelor of Science in General Biology and a minor in Spanish Language, Business and Cultures in May, 2014. As expected, most of Farhan's time is spent in pursuit of his MD. He is also a newlywed husband. In whatever spare time he has, he spends it hiking at Harpers Ferry with his wife, diving into new books (preferably classics), and binging on Netflix.