(written during my first month of medical school)

Brains, I look at brains

Ridge and crevice

I hold, I smell, I peak

Into someone’s privacy

Into someone’s past

Into someone’s brain

Tear and tear, I dig

Rip off the outside,

Filaments glare in white inside

Like wildly growing fungi

Lump and hill, valley and stream

Ridge and crevice

I study, I examine, I stare

At someone’s helpless misfortune

At someone’s grievous end

At someone’s utter horror

Tear and tear, I destroy

All that remains of their mind

Viciously I probe

Into all they’ve left behind.

Brains, I look at brains

Mountains and sea

I touch, I cut, I rip

Through every single vision

And every single name

Through every single emotion

And every single game

Brains, it seems funny

For a conscience to lie in my hand

So far from its owner

Buried under mounds of sand

© Richie Smith