The Doctors—died on August 3,
2015, surrounded by all the
doctors before them and their
eyes that should have been red
but weren’t. The Russian doctor
knew death was near before
anyone else, first said the word
hospice, a word that sounds equally
like hospital and spice. Which is it?
To yearn for someone’s quick
death seems wrong. To go to
the hospital cafeteria and hunch
over a table of toast, pots of jam,
butter glistening seems wrong.
To want to extend someone’s life
who is suffering seems wrong. Do
we want the orchid or the swan
swimming in the middle of the
lake? We can touch the orchid
and it doesn’t move. The orchid
is our understanding of death.
But the swan is death.