by Gerard Sarnat

Fomite foment,
that Nazareth
carpenter hammered my lungs with death.

Fever, sweats,
short of breath
—crisis or lysis—saved if I just repent.

Gerard Sarnat is the author of two critically acclaimed poetry collections, 2010’s HOMELESS CHRONICLES from Abraham to Burning Man and 2012’s Disputes. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in eighty or so journals and anthologies. Harvard and Stanford educated, Gerry’s a physician who’s set up and staffed clinics for the disenfranchised, a CEO of health care organizations, and Stanford professor. For “The Huffington Post” review and more; visit GerardSarnat.com. The pieces published in Empty Sink Publishing may appear in his third collection, 17s, in which every poem, stanza or line has 17 syllables.