Holub, Miroslav : Vanishing Lung Syndrome

Literature Annotations

Genre	Poem
Keywords	Anatomy, Humor and Illness/Disability, Medical Testing, Science Fiction, Surgery, Survival
Summary	Once in a while someone fights for breath. The crowd around him continues with its business, not realizing that inside the man there might be something drastic going on. There might be a sea monster growing, or a raven named Nevermore, or "a huge muteness of fairy tales," or "the wood-block baby that gobbles up everything." Medical tests show that the lung is vanishing and becoming "an abandoned room" in a queer world where "only surgeons / write poems." [34 lines]
Commentary	The inside of a person is an intractable mystery. You may believe that medical tests can describe the lay of the land and identify the problem. After all, it's only a man fighting for his breath. But what happens when the lung simply vanishes? How can you explain that? Perhaps the surgeon has to lay down his knife and turn to poetry for an answer.
Source	Vanishing Lung Syndrome
Publisher	Oberlin College Press
Edition	1990
Place Published	Oberlin,Ohio
Miscellaneous	Translated by David Young and Dana Habrova.
Annotated by	Coulehan, Jack
Date of Entry	10/27/99