"We Just Never Look Closely Enough" by George Bascom

 $Unique_ID{AST00200}

$Title{We Just Never Look Closely Enough}

$Author{Bascom, George S., M.D.}

$Subject{poetry}

$Journal{}

$Volume{}

$Date{1982}

$Log{}

                                 LATE ASTERS

                      We Just Never Look Closely Enough

The operating microscope

Reveals some things

I do not wish to see.

Motions that seem smooth,

Effectual and lovely,

Beneath the lens look

Jerky and ill done.

A shining scalpel edge

Proves rough and broken,

Its silken stroke,

The sticky rending

Of a spider web.

Oh, afterward the tissues heal

Because we operate

Within the bounds

Of the permissible.

Nature smoothes our edges,

Patiently repairs

The ravages

Of our intractable

Irremediable

Clumsiness.