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Poem

Gregory O\'Donoghue

Fable of Three Surgeons

Fable of Three Surgeons

Fable of Three Surgeons

One

from 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.
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Fable of Three Surgeons

One

from 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.

Fable of Three Surgeons

Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère