Thank You, Doctor
by Lori Levy

You are a fixture in the living room—
man reading medical journal—
while the TV stands silent in the den.
But you know it’s not the texts
that make you a good doctor;
it’s Aïda and Madama Butterfly,
Dannie Abse and William Carlos Williams;
it’s the winter walk in the desert
with your wife and children
and red anemones.
It’s the words you choose,
the way you dangle them, sparkling,
before the eyes
of a dying patient,
an aspiring medical student,
or me—your daughter.




"Thank You, Doctor," appeared on the Ad Libitum page of Annals of Internal Medicine
(June 6, 2000) and also on Your Daily Poem (June 17, 2020).

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