The Doctor Heals ~ Dr. Joel Ying

Sometimes you need to have a little fun with the poetry and the spoken word. Here are some musings that worked their way into a poem. With the spoken word, it leaps off the page and leaves me thinking… what was I thinking? …. Enjoy the poem.

Listen to the audio clip if you prefer to have it read to you.


The Doctor Heals
~ by Dr. Joel Ying

I dissect their bodies
With mind and eye,
Listen deeply
with stethoscope and ear,
Looking for spirit, soul, prana,
Disease, disruption, dislocation;
I look deep into their bodies
With X-ray, ultrasound, magnetic fields,
Scalpels and retractors
Cutting away what does not belong.

I stand on the shoulders
Of many charming snakes,
Healers with hearts and herbals,
Witches and warlocks,
Thieves dragging bodies out of the underworld,
Just for a little more time.
Don’t look back.

Worshiping the brain that integrates
All the parts of the body
All the information of science
Could fit on the pin of a needle
Smaller than a computer chip
Technology implanted in your heart
You don’t need that part,
We’ll just cut it out.
Transplant a new soul.

I stand on the nexus to intuit and deduce.
It’s elementary, except when it’s not.
The cures are beyond the apple and aspirin.
Salicylic acid is just one compound,
And the apple is just part
Of the rainbow of fruits
That threw us out of the Garden of Eden.

In the name of science,
I absolve you of all your sins.
Throw ten Hail Marys into the end zone;
Go for the touch down.
Take these pro-biotics and anti-drugs,
And wait and wait and wait …
And you will be healed.

The God of science races against time.
Perhaps hell is just time,
But maybe that is heaven too.
I divine your future.
I charm your snakes.

My child, do not forget that
The God of science loves you,
Here is the suggested donation.
The creditors are devils who will bankrupt you.
Let’s avoid them shall we.
Oh, you have insurance?
Angels thrown out of the kingdom,
They sleep at the gates of medicine.

In the name of science,
I absolve you of all your sins.
You will be healed.

The Doctor Heals, original poem, read by Dr. Joel Ying

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