Gerard Sarnat’s recently been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He’s authored four collections: HOMELESS CHRONICLES (2010), Disputes (2012), 17s (2014) and Melting The Ice King (2016) which included work published in Gargoyle, Lowestoft, American Journal of Poetry, Main Street Rag, New Delta Review, Tishman Review plus was featured in New Verse News, Songs of Eretz, Avocet, LEVELER, tNY, StepAway, Bywords, Floor Plan. Dark Run, Scarlet Leaf, Good Men Project, Anti-Heroin Chic, Winamop, Poetry Circle, and Tipton Review feature sets of new poems. “Amber Of Memory” was the single poem chosen for his 50th college reunion symposium on Bob Dylan; the Harvard Advocate accepted a second. Mount Analogue selected Sarnat’s sequence, KADDISH FOR THE COUNTRY, for distribution as a pamphlet in Seattle on Inauguration Day 2017 as well as the next morning as part of the Washington DC and nationwide Women’s Marches. Harvard/Stanford educated, Gerry’s worked in jails, built/staffed clinics for the marginalized, been a CEO of healthcare organizations and Stanford Medical School professor. Married since 1969, he has three children, four grand kids.

Medical jargon exchange between Isadore and Fanny’s grandsons

Dear Gerry, like I said, sorry you have to go through this —
spinal stenosis pain is not the ordinary garden variety disability.
We imperfect physicians and humans assess greatest risks,
train and adjust our lives to avoid the most obvious only to be
blindsided by something not in life’s expected Venn diagram.

But back miseries are occupational hazard amongst cardiac surgeons.
One partners had post-op MRSA infections; another had reoperations
due to dural tearing and CSF leaks. A third developed liver disease
from all the Rx prescribed to deal with the suffering during what’s
often a long pre-surgical housebound march. That’s anecdotal of course.

I have confidence you and your medical team will arrive at a consensus
based on your symptoms, treatment response, and imaging results.
These onrushing last decades are subject to diseased asteroids hurtling
speedily toward us and our friends. As a sole mate septuagenarian
who shares some familiar chromosomes our fathers passed on,

Love from your first cousin, Sasha Sarnatzky, MD.