Back top shelf bedroom closet
of long-deceased Doctor Sarnat,
his son & granddaughter – also
left-handed but still ticking MDs
— rummaging balanced on a ladder
among sealed boxes soiled bandages
+ bladder catheters circa Eisenhower,
uncover then instinctively almost toss
in our necessarily growing junk pile
next to donation stacks or (long-shot)
estate sale worthies which accumulation
à disposition must precede sprucing up,
putting their condominium (may Mom/
Dad RIP) on the market – one nondescript
dense black plastic sack appears which
holds some missing silver, family jewels.
Gerard Sarnat is a physician who’s built/staffed homeless clinics as well as a Stanford professor/healthcare CEO. Gerry’s been married since 1969 with three kids plus four grandkids and more on the way. He has been nominated for Pushcarts plus Best of the Net Awards and is widely published beyond medical in academic journals such as including by Oberlin, Brown, Columbia, Virginia Commonwealth, Johns Hopkins, Wesleyan and in Gargoyle, Main Street Rag, New Delta Review, MiPOesias, Blue Mountain Review, Danse Macabre, Canary Eco, Military Experience and the Arts, Brooklyn Review, San Francisco Magazine, and Los Angeles Review. KADDISH FOR COUNTRY was selected for pamphlet distribution on Inauguration Day nationwide. “Amber Of Memory” was the single poem chosen for his 50th Harvard reunion Dylan symposium. Collections: Homeless Chronicles (2010), Disputes (2012), 17s (2014), and Melting the Ice King (2016).
–Art by Kithusa