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Humanities

Dissection notes: first day

Doug Hester
CMAJ May 04, 2020 192 (18) E486; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.191552
Doug Hester
Anesthesiology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn.
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Loading

Wrapped in black plastic, a gift

to science waits in the cold laboratory.

Your pupils, moon-round and flat,

reflect my face when I unzip

your body. Thick, damp hair flows

across twin scars on your chest,

suggesting cancer. From the clefts

below your hips, two tattooed roses

bloom in the silence between us.

As fear and sacredness touch,

my scalpel hovers over your skin.

The living resort to action when

words don’t offer anything

much by way of introduction.

Figure
Image courtesy of iStock.com/ilbusca

Footnotes

  • This article has been peer reviewed.

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Canadian Medical Association Journal: 192 (18)
CMAJ
Vol. 192, Issue 18
4 May 2020
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Dissection notes: first day
Doug Hester
CMAJ May 2020, 192 (18) E486; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.191552

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Dissection notes: first day
Doug Hester
CMAJ May 2020, 192 (18) E486; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.191552
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