May 2, 2022
Audio
A Syndrome Receives His Lifetime Service Award
After Shane McCrae
By Tarik Dobbs
View poem image and full text below.
Black and white visual poem. In the center of the page, a historical medical illustration of George Elt, made after his death. This sketch is the documentation of Elt, a prisoner of England, from whom Poland Syndrome was discovered. In the illustration, Elt’s head is bald and his eyes are closed, a cadaver. Visually, his body is cut across the left torso area by scanned text. Elt’s deformed hand is overlaid on the right side of his chest. Overall, the details of the illustration are sparse except for fine detailing on the right side of his body to illustrate his missing pectoralis major, and the gap it creates in one’s shoulder area.
“GEORGE ELT.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, the abscess. The history. Oh, formaldehyde man. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh man. Oh man. Oh man. Oh man. Man. Man. Man. Man. Man. Man. Oh. Oh the history. Oh the man in London.
(The hand has been deposited in the museum of Guy’s Hospital).
The hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. History. No History of the six inferior ribs,
GEORGE ELT.
Oh hand somewhere. The history, the history, the history, the history, the history, the history, the history, the history, the history, the history.
Never drawn his left arm.
The history, the history, the history, the history, the history, the history, the history, the history, the history, the history.
Reported by Mr. Alfred Poland. GEORGE ELT, a convict. A delicate.
The his. The. The. The. The history. The story. The. His story was fleshy, deficiency. His story.”
Tarik Dobbs
Tarik Dobbs (Arabic: طارق دبس, IPA: /tɐʼɾɪʜk ˈdɑbz/) (they/them) is a writer and artist born in Dearborn, Michigan, on stolen land of the Chippewa, Ottawa, & Potawatomi people. Tarik’s poetry appears in the Best New Poets & Best of the Net anthologies, as well as POETRY Magazine. Tarik works at poetry.onl, and served as a guest editor at Mizna. In May 2022, Tarik received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota, and is an incoming M.F.A. fellow in Art,Theory,Practice, at Northwestern University. Follow them on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Image description: The writer, Tarik Dobbs, is framed from the waist up in profile point-of-view, standing in front of a pristine lake at sunrise. Tarik is a pale SWANA-American person wearing a cozy flannel. Tarik’s eyes squint as they look off into the distance.