If Dr. Williams Was Alive
Persis M. Karim

If Dr. Williams was alive—
William Carlos that is—
He’d say we ought not
Cover our faces in white
Masks
And make a mockery
Of humanity.

He’d say that the flu
Wasn’t caused by birds
But by the strange
Absence of flight
In our souls.

He might also wish
To travel a little more.
Hold the hands of the dead
And dying
In Africa, India.
Marveling not at the sickness
But at the resilience
Of so many.

But he’d be disgusted too.
Turn in his medical license
And write a little ditty
About the epidemic of HMO greed
That had plagued his
Profession.

This isn’t the way to treat
A human body, he’d say.

If you want to be a doctor
You’ve got to have a little
Bed
        side
manner.

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Persis M. Karim teaches writing and literature at San Jose State University. She is the co-author and co-editor of A World Between: Poems, Short Stories and Essays by Iranian-Americans (George Braziller, 1999) and is editor of Let Me Tell You Where I've Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora (forthcoming 2006). Her poetry has been published in HeartLodge, Caesura, di-verse-city, and Reed Magazine. She lives in Berkeley, CA.

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