Tracks

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Wynne Morrison, MD, MBE

Accompanying artwork: Tracks by Ty Ennis

Perm J 2018;22:10-141 [Full Citation]

https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/10-141

E-pub: 07/31/2018

This is a story and illustration from the upcoming book 100 Little Stories of Big Moments published by The Permanente Press.

Most of the stories and poems were written by clinicians in 15 minutes in writing workshops about meaningful moments in their work and life of practicing medicine. Professional artists were asked to create a visual representation of the story.

He is a slave to the yearning
that has become his life.
Hard cords wind up his arm,
toxic tributaries running
to the river through his heart.
The arm is bruised
and scarred by overuse,
a strip-mined landscape
on a mountainside.

Bits of his life erode
and fall apart until the end.
Lying on a bathroom floor,
syringe still clutched
in a blue hand,
long sleeves of the
turtleneck rolled up,
revealing the stigmata
of the sacrificial lamb.

How to Cite this Article

Morrison W. Tracks. Perm J 2018;22:10-041. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/10-041

The poem “Tracks” was originally published in leaflet, 2012;3(2). Available from: http://leaflet.thepermanentepress.org/2012-09-07-07-54-29/volume-3-issue-2/item/tracks.