Narrative Medicine Monday: Flamingos

Poet Zeina Hashem Beck’s “Flamingos” in The Southeast Review reflects on the normalcy that persists, even in the midst of a child’s illness.

She begins in second person, as “the nurses pushed your bed into the OR.” The context quickly takes shape, the way a promise is made in response to outstretched arms “to see the flamingos / in the hospital garden downstairs.”

Hashem Beck signals there are expectations when caring for a loved one who is ill, but that we sometimes do the irrational: “The worried aren’t supposed to be hungry, / but I ordered food because it was reassuring.” The food represents a comforting nourishment, even if not consumed.

In “Flamingos,” Hashem Beck shows the divide between the “outside” world and that of the world of illness: surgery, the ICU, hospitals. In caring for her daughter, she is so removed from this alternate world that when she returns home for the simple act of a shower, she stumbles with the cadence of normalcy: “hair dripping, my arms full / of laundry, for a second I must have forgotten / my step, twisted & cracked my ankle.” A friend helps her to the emergency room, and all she can do is laugh, tell the doctor to “to fix my ankle, quick, I have a daughter / waiting in a room upstairs…”

“Flamingos” is a reflection on how life goes on, how “life will sometimes infect your daughter’s lung / & fracture your ankle in the same week.” There is a kind of apology, a stream of motherly advice in the end. The wisdom that even on mundane days, the days “the car doesn’t break down, / & the children are healthy, & your husband / loves you … you will be terrified nevertheless, / & sometimes empty. It’s ok if you forget / to put one foot in front of the other.”

Writing Prompt: When you or a loved one is ill, do you feel the divide between the “outside” world and the one you’re living through? In what moments does that divide manifest? I like the allowance the poet gives, that’s it’s okay to forget to put one foot in front of the other. Have you ever experienced a situation when it felt like all you could do was put one foot in front of the other? What happened, or might have, if you didn’t? Write for 10 minutes.

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Narrative Medicine Monday: An Enlarged Heart

Cynthia Zarin writes a detailed account of a time her daughter fell ill in “An Enlarged Heart”. She explores her own realization that her daughter was significantly sick and also documents her encounters with the medical system on the path to diagnosis and treatment. 

Writing prompt: Write about a time when you were caring for a loved one with an unexpected illness. How did you respond? What were the challenges you encountered with the health care system? What, if anything, did you struggle with yourself?

 

 

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