Poem
Gregory O\'Donoghue
Fable of Three Surgeons
Fable of Three Surgeons
Fable of Three Surgeons
Onefrom Saskatchewan
who knitted severed fingers
back on a piano-player
who, a month later,
tickled the ivories
at Carnegie Hall.
Two
stitched legs
back on a Seattle man
who then almost won
the New York marathon.
Three
lectured on
expertise picked up
in the great Lone Star State:
his amputee a cowboy
on alcohol and cocaine
who spurred his horse
at the Santa Fé freight train –
flew through the middle of the air,
bounced off a nodding donkey,
fell into an oil well;
the surgeon knitted back
all that remained –
a horse’s ass and a Stetson hat;
his patient ruins pianos, can’t run;
but don’t picnic today
on the White House lawn.
© 2006, The Estate of Gregory O\'Donoghue
From: Ghost Dance
Publisher: The Dedalus Press, Dublin
From: Ghost Dance
Publisher: The Dedalus Press, Dublin
Poems
Poems of Gregory O\'Donoghue
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Fable of Three Surgeons
Onefrom Saskatchewan
who knitted severed fingers
back on a piano-player
who, a month later,
tickled the ivories
at Carnegie Hall.
Two
stitched legs
back on a Seattle man
who then almost won
the New York marathon.
Three
lectured on
expertise picked up
in the great Lone Star State:
his amputee a cowboy
on alcohol and cocaine
who spurred his horse
at the Santa Fé freight train –
flew through the middle of the air,
bounced off a nodding donkey,
fell into an oil well;
the surgeon knitted back
all that remained –
a horse’s ass and a Stetson hat;
his patient ruins pianos, can’t run;
but don’t picnic today
on the White House lawn.
From: Ghost Dance
Fable of Three Surgeons
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