Doctors

They work with herbs / and penicillin. / They work with gentleness / and the scalpel. / They dig out the cancer, / close an incision / and say a prayer / to the poverty of the skin. / They are not Gods / though they would like to be; / they are only a human / trying to fix up a human. / Many humans die. / They die like the tender, / palpitating berries / in November. / But all along the doctors remember: / First do no harm. / They would kiss if it would heal. / It would not heal. // If the doctors cure / then the sun sees it. / If the doctors kill / then the earth hides it. / The doctors should fear arrogance / more than cardiac arrest. / If they are too proud, / and some are, / then they leave home on horseback / but God returns them on foot.