-ectomy

Submitted by Austin Wesevich

But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you,”
nor again the head to the feet, “I do not need you.”

Appendix
Gallbladder
Limbs, lobes, lung.

Dispensable.

replacement hormones
synthetic attempts
to recreate function
of complex entities

Crude surrogates.

We divorce
our organs from our bodies.
We divorce
our bodies from our selves.

Synergy lost.

The nurse is the eye.
Physician, the hand,
cutting in a field full of fragments.
Yet one patient, yearning to be whole.

If one part suffers, all parts suffer with it;
if one part is honored, all parts share its joy.

Deputy Editor's Commentary

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Austin Wesevich is a third year medical student at Washington University School of Medicine.  He studied chemistry and music as an undergraduate student at Washington University in St. Louis and seeks this balance in bringing the arts into medicine.