A Doctor's Dream

I suddenly long

to be the ennui

musician playing

piano for the

elevator hit

parade in my

left ear as

I wait on

hold to answer

a page while

on call for

another tragic

case of human

misery and despair.

Will my dream

snowball or

fall like a

dried leaf eaten

by a tethered

old goat in

a dank field of

briars and thistle?

Or will it

vanish like the

failed aspirations

of that benumbed

music wizard's

lost youth

spent rehearsing

for my tiny

otic concert hall?

By Robert Hippen, MD