Medical Report to the English Department

“Listen up, the sounds of sleep apnea
clearly display onomatopoeia!”
“Please include words like snore as of this date
so they will not need to interpolate.”

The nosology of medical men
is wide-ranging in the scope of disease;
and fellows well-versed in poetry then
found relevance in a word such as wheeze.

“As catatonic as this patient seems,
the EEG purports excessive dreams.”
"Such cogent data will or course abound,
but they, for sure, find interest in the sound.”

The doctor on duty, churlish in mood,
found sleep in the day and worked through the night;
‘neath the caduceus, patently rude
lurked a clipboard carrying lychnobite.

Despite the cold hands of sleep-duty doc,
the rooms are haimish, so sleepers don’t balk.
Comfort comports to a coeval place,
disorders of sleep the English now trace.

“I have little doubt his breathing is weak
due to a structural defect inside.”
“And quite strong, despite his pyknic physique,
so our common-sense treatment will abide.”

Those sounds conveyed to the readers of Keats,
with assonance found in iambic beats,
the lightning to flash, a loud thunderclap--
they made from the words this, “Ode to a Nap.”


“Hawk’s Vocabulary Contest" (March 2011)

All 10 words used
(Lines: 28; Words: 196)
[Rhythm:10]

3-16-11









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