• leaflet

    . . .a thin triangular flap of a heart valve. . . a small book usually having a paper cover . . . a medical lit-art e-journal from The Permanente Press
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Samuel K Williams, III, MD, CPG

Contributor's Note

I was inspired to write this poem while I was working at an inner-city primary care clinic in West Baltimore, Maryland. There is well I fell in love with the beautiful brown skin who is the subject of my poem, “Delirium cor de Baltimore,” and which is being published in Leaflet.  In addition, I’ve written over 130 poems published on www.allpoetry.com utilizing my pen-name, “The Thoughtsider.” 

Delirium cor de Baltimore

Vol 6: Iss 2, Poetry

My heart once became quite delirious 

And developed a rapid onset of beat-to-beat variability

This happened suddenly, in two thousand fourteen 

When, I was in love, with a beautiful woman

Who made my heart pump fast, and hard 

And at other times, slow, and soft

Fast, hard, slow, and soft which were non-exertional changes in beats

And my gestalt-based perception of my hemoglobin’s oxygen concentration 

Remained unrelated to my body’s oxygen demands

Yet, with this delirious heart I remained cognitively alert 

Although at times, pulseless, unresponsive to stimuli, or barely so 

My overall impression is that it was really due to sadness, from unrequited love

And with such a realization my heart began to improve, in time, 

When I balanced my mind, and realized that this emotional EKG, 

was not an electrical line 

It was delirium cor, from falling in love 

With a beautiful woman named Maleeka, whose brown skin I left in Baltimore

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