​POETRY  -  
          With a Theme of Work 

Learning medicine was never a calling:      -    photo by Weebly.com                                    

Takes Money to Retire
by Corey Weinstein

I

Work not a calling is a job,
Job with little meaning is a drudge,
Drudge is often created by finance,
Finance requires forms and boxes,
Boxes must be checked for review,
Review desires margins of profit,
Profit regards only money in the bank,
Bank collapses the meaning of work,
Work not a calling is a job,
Job with little meaning is a drudge.

II

Learning medicine was never a calling,
If there was an urge from the deep
it was unfelt,           it was unheard
if there was a call from the ether,
The Holocaust demanded we have head skills,
This was the 1950s, Jews terrorized,
Ready to run at the turn of an election.
 
Good in science, like people, be a doctor,
Simple arithmetic of rising from poverty,
Yet people are fascinating in their suffering,
Unique and complex each person, each illness,
Special moments of discovery and solutions,
A life of study and compassion betrayed,
Healing interesting, money the real purpose,
Meaning in deposited checks and balances,
Too many forms, too many reviews,
Complexity transmuted into numbers,
Individuality collapsed into a check box,
Too little time with the lame and ill,
Drudge is often created by finance.

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A retired physician, Corey Weinstein is a musician, poet, songwriter and clarinet player. He has published two CDs of original music inspired by the Klezmer and Yiddish stage musical traditions and led Umzist, a Klezmer band playing benefits for Jewish elders for more than a decade. He wrote and performed at various venues a singspiel, Erased: Babi Yar, the SS and Me to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the massacre at Babi Yar. He plays clarinet in the Or Shalom Jewish Community choir, with The Jamberries Jazz Band at Shabbat services at Rhoda Goldman Plaza, and with any chamber music group he can find. He lives in the Ingleside of San Francisco with his wife of 40 years, Pat Skala.

Other pieces in this Issue:  
Poetry:  
Prisoner Watches an Initiation

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