Poem of the Day: “The Museum of Medical Curiosities” by F.J. Bergmann

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present “The Museum of Medical Curiosities” by F.J. Bergmann.  Bergmann writes poetry and speculative fiction, often simultaneously, and is the editor of Star*Line, the journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association sfpoetry.com, and poetry editor of Mobius: The Journal of Social Change mobiusmagazine.com.

The Museum of Medical Curiosities

F.J. Bergmann

Once a month, she rides the bus into the city,

and then gets on another bus that stops

a convenient two blocks from her destination.

An ancient edifice—brass railings, marble tile,

high ceilings—the building echoes, whispers

of footsteps descending from floor to floor,

holds a spectrum of shadows. Glass-fronted

display cases contain dusty dioramas, yellowing

descriptions, diagrams, skeletons, skulls, examples

of what could be treated by medicine at that time

and what could not. Documented deaths

of bygone celebrities now fading into history.

A saponified corpse, fatty tissues turned to soap

during decades in a cemetery’s alkaline soil.

Diminutive ear bones delicate as hummingbird

claws. Cabinets full of drawers, themselves filled

with small compartments, holding hundreds

of objects children had choked on, each one

accompanied by a neat note detailing whether

it had been removed before the patient’s death

or after it was too late.

She stands in front of the Fetal Deformities

case, looking at the pale, translucent thing

in a jar labeled Hydrocephalus. Wonders

whether the infant they never let her see

had looked like this.

Poet’s Notes: I enjoy museums and have written poems about more than one. This poem describes the Mutter Museum (pictured) located in Philadelphia; its fascinating exhibits are well worth visiting, which I have done many times. However, the experience must be quite different for those who have lost loved ones to the conditions therein sampled and displayed—and the further back into the past one goes, the more appalling the circumstances.

Editor’s Note:  I particularly enjoy the first stanza, as I am a medical doctor.  The poem would have worked well had it ended with it.  Then I read the second stanza!  What a sucker punch (in a good way) after the sadness induced by the last line of the first.  Also, I appreciate the implicit message or moral lesson that the second stanza delivers.