Category Archives: Health

Health Care, Public Health Stuff

POEM: Heir Quality

Posted on December 18, 2025 by Top Pun

Ohio air quality ranks 46th among states. As an asthmatic, I keep tabs on real time air quality. I have noticed that in the summer Toledo typically gets its air quality coming in from the northwest, and in the winter … Continue reading →

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POEM: As Sick Care As Republic Can

Posted on December 17, 2025 by Top Pun

I hope that we can all agree that American health care is busted and won’t be fixed with more neoliberal profiteering or Republican austerity. We seem to have perfected less health care for more cost. Let’s give Medicare for all … Continue reading →

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POEM: Patients

Posted on August 4, 2025 by Top Pun

This poem is specially for those impatient with being a patient… Patients If you want patience Start with won Be patient A ward will come later

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POEM: Guise With Guns

Posted on June 6, 2025 by Top Pun

Guns don’t kill people; bullets ripping through organs, flesh, and bones do. GUN VIOLENCE = MEANNESS X FEAR Guise With Guns It hit me in a flash Seeing through Guise with guns They are more frayed Than I am In … Continue reading →

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POEM: Medical Free Dumb

Posted on June 4, 2025 by Top Pun

We have officially crossed the Rubicon, hereafter known simply as “con,” regarding health and public health. We are wholesale throwing away $billions$ for what makes little cents. The net we are trapped in is a profound net loss. Health has … Continue reading →

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POEM: Who Polices Who – Owed to Luigi Mangione

Posted on April 4, 2025 by Top Pun

Luigi Mangione is the suspect in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson. The U.S. Justice Department is seeking the death penalty. If nothing else, America seems good at killing. Of coarse, the sensational nature of this killing … Continue reading →

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POEM: Vaccine-Preventable Deafs

Posted on February 27, 2025 by Top Pun

The first person in a decade to die of measles has been an unvaccinated school-aged child in Texas. Our useless HHS Secretary, Rob Kennedy, Jr. echoed the under-recognized epidemiologist Tom Jones in declaring the ongoing measles outbreak, “Not unusual.” Here … Continue reading →

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POEM: Where Do I Find Myself?

Posted on January 23, 2025 by Top Pun

Where Do I Find Myself? Wear due I fine My self A good heart he laugh Laughter is good medicine, good for heart and soul. I find the light-heartedness of humor the touchstone of my soul. Years ago, I took … Continue reading →

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POEM: Unschooled Shootings

Posted on September 4, 2024 by Top Pun

Georgia on my mind. Unschooled Shootings As law abiding sits in trouble An other School shooting A nation whys The soul thing That stops A bad man With a gun More often then not Is a body politic Riddled with … Continue reading →

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POEM: Of Yores and Mind — Owed to Buffalo State Asylum for the Mentally Insane

Posted on March 12, 2024 by Top Pun

Last summer, while visiting Buffalo, which was a serendipitously pleasant visit (except for the bedbugs, see bed bug poem), the highlight of the visit was stumbling upon this grand architectural complex. We were staying in a cool, urban farm Airbnb … Continue reading →

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POEM: Genocide Joe

Posted on March 4, 2024 by Top Pun

Monday mourning. Last week President Joe Biden spoke of being hopeful about a ceasefire deal in Gaza. I must confess, I scheduled posting this last week, expecting the likely outcome of genocide unabated and genocide Joe abidin’ his time. I … Continue reading →

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Starving Palestinians — How Compassion Ate Gazans

Posted on January 11, 2024 by Top Pun

President Biden’s posed compassion and the U.S.-Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza is starving the civilian population. The generations-long military occupation, the 16-year blockade on Gaza, and the current months-long bombing campaign has created a crucible of death in Gaza. … Continue reading →

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POEM: Anew Year

Posted on December 31, 2023 by Top Pun

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Anew Year Father time Mother patience Bring it on Anew year Out with the owed Be gone with grudges And woe to overdo In with the knew Refreshing awe that hold dear Embracing fully that near And … Continue reading →

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POEM: Only-ness

Posted on December 30, 2023 by Top Pun

This poem emerged from an observation that I made that “Loneliness is the shadow of individualism.” Loneliness is an epidemic in America, the most individualistic culture on earth. This poem goes out to anyone who has ever felt “only,” that … Continue reading →

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POEM: Take a Collective Breath

Posted on December 18, 2023 by Top Pun

This poem is a rare combination of my life as a poet and a public health worker. This poem juxtaposes the personal option of some to choose organic food but the collective difficulty of choosing clean air. Some times we … Continue reading →

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POEM: In Hospitable Missive

Posted on October 18, 2023 by Top Pun

This poem was inspired by Israel’s official denial of any responsibility in the missile attack on a Palestinian hospital which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of patients, health care workers, and refugees desperately seeking what was hoped to be … Continue reading →

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POEM: The Hypocrites Oath

Posted on October 2, 2023 by Top Pun

This poem is a parody of the “Hippocratic Oath,” an early version of medical ethics best known for its precept of “do no harm.” Of course, American health care is a minefield of doing harm, adept at both undertreatment and … Continue reading →

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POEM: Lilliputian Vampires — Ode to Bed Bugs

Posted on September 16, 2023 by Top Pun

Earlier this summer, at an air bnb, we were hit by a bed bug infestation. Bed bug bites are characterized by three bites in a row, and I had a couple dozen bites strewn over my body. Some bites were … Continue reading →

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POEM: The Muse

Posted on July 19, 2023 by Top Pun

This poem is about the muse striking when she sees fit, or knot. The pandemic was quiet a dry spell for my poetry, partly because my time and creative energies where engaged in my public health radio show. Still, I … Continue reading →

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POEM: Blue Light Unspecial

Posted on July 10, 2023 by Top Pun

This poem is a bout blue light from electronic devices that stimulate our brains, and not necessarily our souls. Blue light interferes with falling asleep.  Blue light is an evolutionary newcomer dominating our nervous system, in contrast to night skies … Continue reading →

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