Divine Physician

Choose the one most comfortable for you:
arm raised in a waterfall
or stretched on a flower bed.
Examine your breasts
like a handful of feathers.
God it is who speaks through your fingers
with power to probe for a hard button,
a marble in a pillow of rice. God,
who imbues your diagnostic digits
with wisdom. Still to restore
peace, lift from us again, this month,
the burden of not knowing.

I took the line "like a handful of feathers" from the comments section at ReadWritePoem.org. That line was contributed by Joanna Preston. For the rest of the poem, I took my inspiration from the ear-nose-throat specialist's waiting room, while my husband had a follow-up appointment about his allergies. "Examine your breasts" comes from a poster about breast self-exams. The phrases "God it is," "and lift from us," "Still to restore" and "power to probe" came from a poem called "The Choice" that hung on the wall. It was a poem about how doctors get their skills from God and asking the reader to pray for them. No author was listed.