Story idea free to good home: The Empathic Bone

This is an idea for the premise of a story. I am not a fiction writer, so will probably not develop it. If you write fiction and are interested by the premise, please feel free to adopt it. Just let me know.

A psychotherapist is in a car accident and suffers some injuries, including broken bones. After recovery, he notices intermittent pain at the fracture sites, and at first attributes it to weather changes, but soon realizes that it seems to correlate with emotional pain experienced by his patients.

From this premise several directions could be taken. A few thoughts: Obviously, there is the question of whether the correlation is real. The pain itself could also be real or psychosomatic. Would this phenomenon be useful, or a burden? Could he treat patients experiencing extreme pain, or would he be forced to drop them? How empathic was the therapist before the accident? Is this pain somehow reflective of his own process of becoming more empathic, or the result of denying connection with his patients? Is this a story of the supernatural, or of psychology?

That's all I have for now. Might add more later if anything occurs to me.

When You Coast In

When you coast in to the calm,
slowing, your momentum gladly checked at last
by shallow water,
you do not regard at all what storms may still
wreak havoc on the shore. No,
you are holding as you stop a memory
of what great tempest drove you, and your heart
is savoring a fragile peace, 
released from turbulence to quiet.
Soon enough you will disembark,
turn up the collar of your coat, and trudge
on to your next goal. For one more minute
as you loose the anchor let your resting place
be here, where no wind is your master.

April 28 2011

Benjamin Franklin, Dissatisfied

No, I can't honestly say I know what this one is about.

In my dream, Benjamin Franklin was dissatisfied.
The colonies were growing well, but there was no room to raise wheat.
All the minor crops--rye, barley, flax--were flourishing in their small plots,
but where were the wide expanses needed to support great waving fields?
Benjamin Franklin knew he wanted to move on,
but what of the colonists' thirst for independence?
He went up to a high place overlooking all the towns
and was amazed to see how quickly the land had been developed,
how houses and roads had filled in all the empty spaces.
In spite of his restlessness, he was pleased 
with what had been accomplished.
He lay down on the green sunny lawn
and pressed his body into the warm grass
and knew a moment of great happiness and fulfilment
before he woke.

April 19 2011

We Must Scrupulously Observe

We must scrupulously observe
this coming growing season
and make the summer full
not least because the lives we lost
deserve our best memorial.
Plant your seedlings from their plastic packs
respectfully, and drain the dregs of your ruby drinks
joyfully, being sure to ride your bicycle 
thoroughly, so that your winter lungs feel to their deepest part
the pang of life returning; and in the firefly evening 
distant weeks from now, listen
so that possibly you may hear the message of the insects
from the dark, saying that your gift has been received 
and found  acceptable.

April 15 2011

The Ocean Cannot Greet You

The ocean cannot greet you more gently
because you have never seen it.
It does not know you come from inland
and are only young.
It is up to you to bite its waves
and test its cold and salt.
Shake its seaweed like your prey
run here and there; defy, deny, ignore it
till you can decide
if you can treat this ocean like your playground
or must bark without effect against
its heedless, ancient roar.

April 14 2011

Let the Day End With the Dishes

Let the day end with the dishes.
Let the night so gently implode
along its usual lines of fracture:
pajamas, lunches, and ironing.
Let the last unraveling of evening be
into familiar threads whose ends can easily 
be gathered for tomorrow's weave
but not tonight, when our only remaining concerns
should be with letting go, a final chapter,
one more child to put to bed,
the turning out of a light, the kiss,
the whispered promise of return,
and last, the possible nearness of a quiet other
in a dark good night.

April 5 2011