0
March 4, 2009, Vol 301, No. 9 >

Full Content is available to subscribers

Subscribe/Learn More
Poetry and Medicine | March 4, 2009

Bottle Beach: Spring Migration

Pamela Gross
JAMA. 2009;301(9):915. doi:10.1001/jama.2009.208.
Text Size: A A A
Published online
Article

Extract

   Be glad
for this cold hour at daylight's end, and
for the unexpected abundance
of shorebirds stopping
on their way through.
        Late afternoon, they litter
the high tide's edge with the rockshapes
of their bodies—
Plover, Dunlin, Red Knot, Dowitcher, Ruddy-Turnstone—
slick shadows, wet-cast in sand.
               The waves here
thin to a palmstroke,
and the hand that carries these birds out
on the receding tide sweeps the beach clean.
No limpet's emptied hat, no winkle's staircase
split open on its spiral descent. . .
nothing written in kelp's bullwhip scrawl.
No bottles on this beach
named for them.
   Suppose
we found one. Imagine we dared
to pick it up, dared to read
the message locked inside. What if
we learned what we already suspect?
That our lives are subject to the same slippage
underfoot that bares this beach.
                 Or,
if we learned what we could never suspect.
That in less than eight weeks, the friend
who has directed us to this misnamed place
will lie down to rest and wake up
to a different erasure.
The name of each thing
washed away in her sleep: her thoughts
startled, lifting, banking away
in a single flock.

Topics

Sign In to Access Full Content

Don't have Access?

Register and get free email Table of Contents alerts, saved searches, PowerPoint downloads, CME quizzes, and more

Subscribe for full-text access to content from 1998 forward and a host of useful features

Activate your current subscription (AMA members and current subscribers)

Purchase Online Access to this article for 24 hours

First Page Preview

View Large
First page PDF preview

Figures

Tables

Interactive Graphics

Video

Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature

Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal

References

Letters

Submit a Letter
CME
Accreditation Information
The American Medical Association is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The AMA designates this journal-based CME activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM per course. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. Physicians who complete the CME course and score at least 80% correct on the quiz are eligible for AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM.
Note: You must get at least of the answers correct to pass this quiz.
Clear Answers | Save For Later
You have not filled in all the answers to complete this quiz
The following questions were not answered:
Sorry, you have unsuccessfully completed this CME quiz with a score of
The following questions were not answered correctly:
Commitment to Change (optional):
Indicate what change(s) you will implement in your practice, if any, based on this CME course.
Your quiz results:
The filled radio buttons indicate your responses. The preferred responses are highlighted
For CME Course: A Proposed Model for Initial Assessment and Management of Acute Heart Failure Syndromes
Indicate what changes(s) you will implement in your practice, if any, based on this CME course.
NOTE:
Citing articles are presented as examples only. In non-demo SCM6 implementation, integration with CrossRef’s “Cited By” API will populate this tab (http://www.crossref.org/citedby.html).
Compression-Only CPR: Pushing the Science Forward
Cone
AAM 2010;304:1493-1495.
All you need to read in the other general journals
BMJ 2010;341:c5893-c1494.
Submit a Response

Some tools below are only available to our subscribers or users with an online account.

Sign In to Access Full Content

Related Content

Customize your page view by dragging & repositioning the boxes below.

Related Topics
Jobs

More Listings at
JAMACareerCenter.com >

© 2013 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.
Powered bySilverchair Information Systems