Take away your knowledge, Doktor. <br />It doesn't butter me up. <br /> <br />You say my heart is sick unto. <br />You ought to have more respect! <br /> <br />you with the goo on the suction cup. <br />You with your wires and electrodes <br /> <br />fastened at my ankle and wrist, <br />sucking up the biological breast. <br /> <br />You with your zigzag machine <br />playing like the stock market up and down. <br /> <br />Give me the Phi Beta key you always twirl <br />and I will make a gold crown for my molar. <br /> <br />I will take a slug if you please <br />and make myself a perfectly good appendix. <br /> <br />Give me a fingernail for an eyeglass. <br />The world was milky all along. <br /> <br />I will take an iron and press out <br />my slipped disk until it is flat. <br /> <br />But take away my mother's carcinoma <br />for I have only one cup of fetus tears. <br /> <br />Take away my father's cerebral hemorrhage <br />for I have only a jigger of blood in my hand. <br /> <br />Take away my sister's broken neck <br />for I have only my schoolroom ruler for a cure. <br /> <br />Is there such a device for my heart? <br />I have only a gimmick called magic fingers. <br /> <br />Let me dilate like a bad debt. <br />Here is a sponge. I can squeeze it myself. <br /> <br />O heart, tobacco red heart, <br />beat like a rock guitar. <br /> <br />I am at the ship's prow. <br />I am no longer the suicide <br /> <br />with her raft and paddle. <br />Herr Doktor! I'll no longer die <br /> <br />to spite you, you wallowing <br />seasick grounded man.<br /><br />Anne Sexton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-doctor-of-the-heart/
