Totentanz

Sep 6, 2016

Outside the wind tears

still-green leaves from their branches

pulling them up and off

like a corn shucker

ripping husk from kernels.

The leaves, whisked into the wet,

chilled air,

enter a frenzied procession—

a mad swirl of twigs,

rotting bark, and

wrappers lifted from the gutter.

Through the window,

I watch this cruel, choreographed

dance of debris,

the tango of dead and not-dead

that spells the end of summer.

Watch fourth-year MD student, Phoebe Prioleau recite Totentanz—the poem that won her first-place in the 2016 William Carlos Williams Poetry Competition.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Phoebe Prioleau is a fourth-year MD/MPH student at the Icahn School of Medicine.

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Totentanz

Sep 06, 2016 | 2017

Outside the wind tears

still-green leaves from their branches

pulling them up and off

like a corn shucker

ripping husk from kernels.

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Vision (1-3) alludes to our naive fascination—an exploration of perception, self-awareness, and fantasy.
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Reading for pleasure after a drought feels, I imagine, like a marine animal breaching. Nowadays, an essay stands for indulgence; its serif fonts recall a time when my life was consumed by books (or rather, spent in their consumption). I catch glimpses of a world above, where epic meant poetry, meant story, meant the telling of tales til break of dawn, rather than the late-night perusal of electronic medical records in preparation for morning rounds. A haiku was not written finger-to-phone.
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Totentanz

Sep 06, 2016 | Artistic Expressions

Outside the wind tears

still-green leaves from their branches

pulling them up and off

like a corn shucker

ripping husk from kernels.