From Raising Healthy Children to Defending the Insane: Medical Wisdom from Dr. Fredrick Peterson--Neurologist, Poet, and Humanitarian

< i > Every Child (poem and play)

Introduction: Cactus

You might have seen a tree in a more gracious land,
But deserts overwhelmed you with their hot blown sand.
Ages of thirst have made you what you are -
Grossly misshapen, odd, grotesque, bizarre
You lift your naked stumps to the unseeing sky,
Symbols of frustration, unfortunately -
Yet sometimes even you recall some ancient power
When from your warped torso springs the splendor of a flower

Play: (sweat shop, children, parents)
Doctor: "I am a new kind of doctor, a health doctor, not a disease doctor... lift up the curtains, open the windows, throw away the candy & pork...I think the trouble with you is bad food, bad air, and no light..."
Epilogue: "Every child is not here yet - but they must come to the land of health, the land of happiness, to the land of hope and joy and future"