NAME:
Whitman, Walter

Physician Notes: Goes by “Walt.”

ADDRESS:
The Grass

Notes: Is this a housing development? Clarify with patient.

AGE:
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
I know I am deathless.

Notes: Well, aren’t we optimistic?

RACE/ETHNICITY:
I contain multitudes. Of every hue and caste am I.

Notes: Multiracial.

OCCUPATION:
I am the actor, the actress, the voter, the politician,
The emigrant and the exile, the criminal that stood in the box,
He who has been famous and he who shall be famous after to-day,

Notes: Unemployed.

MARITAL STATUS:
I am a free companion,
I turn the bridegroom out of bed and stay with the bride myself

Notes: Single.

EMERGENCY CONTACTS:
The Dutchman, the Swede, the onanist, the unrequited, the beautiful lost swimmer, the affectionate boy, the child of the glutton, the sweating Methodist preacher, the midnight widow, the laugher and weeper, the idiot, Abraham Lincoln

Notes: Are these real people? Do they have names? Contact numbers? Do they also live in The Grass? Inform patient that emergency contacts cannot be: 1. Minors; 2. Ethnic stereotypes; 3. Famously deceased.

RELATIONSHIP TO PATIENT:
My brothers and sisters

Notes: Unlikely.

ARE YOU SEXUALLY ACTIVE?
The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them.

Notes: Yes.

DO YOU GET REGULAR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY?
I lean and loaf at my ease.

Notes: Talk to patient about doing more cardio.

HOW IS YOUR DIET?
What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest — All this I swallow, it tastes good, I like it well, it becomes mine.

Notes: Not optimal, but the honesty is refreshing.

DO YOU DRINK OR USE RECREATIONAL DRUGS?
The smoke of my own breath
Tenderly I will use you curling grass

Notes: Marijuana. Inquire about frequency of use.

ON AVERAGE, HOW MANY HOURS OF SLEEP DO YOU GET EACH NIGHT?
I wander all night in my vision…
Wandering and confused, lost to myself, ill-assorted, contradictory.

Notes: “Perfect health” appears to have been overstated. Chronic insomnia, disorientation. Screen for early-onset dementia?

WHAT CONCERN BRINGS YOU HERE TODAY?
I sing the body electric.

Notes: Patient concern unclear. Epilepsy? Restless leg syndrome?

PLEASE LIST ANY OTHER MEDICAL ILLNESSES OR HEALTH ISSUES:
Welcome is every organ and attribute of me, and of any man
hearty and clean: head, neck, hair, ears, drop and tympan of the ears,
Eyes, eye-fringes, iris of the eye, eyebrows, and the waking or sleeping of the lids,
Mouth, tongue, lips, teeth, roof of the mouth, jaws, and the jaw-hinges,
Nose, nostrils of the nose, and the partition,
Cheeks, temples, forehead, chin, throat, back of the neck, neck-slue,
Strong shoulders, manly beard, scapula, hind-shoulders, and the ample side-round of the chest,
Upper-arm, armpit, elbow-socket, lower-arm, arm-sinews, arm-bones,
Wrist and wrist-joints, hand, palm, knuckles, thumb, forefinger, finger-joints, finger-nails,
Broad breast-front, curling hair of the breast, breast-bone, breast-side,
Ribs, belly, backbone, joints of the backbone,
Hips, hip-sockets, hip-strength, inward and outward round, man-balls, man-root,
Strong set of thighs, well carrying the trunk above,
Leg fibres, knee, knee-pan, upper-leg, under-leg,
Ankles, instep, foot-ball, toes, toe-joints, the heel.

Notes: This is just a list of body parts. Patient is either healthy or disintegrating.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN SCREENED FOR COLON CANCER?
I keep as delicate around the bowels as around the head and heart. What is removed drops horribly in a pail — the bowels sweet and clean.

Notes: Emphatic yes.

DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS FOR YOUR PHYSICIAN?
The murder’d man, how does he sleep?
How is it I extract strength from the beef I eat?
Do you know so much yourself that you call the meanest ignorant?
Do you suppose you have a right to a good sight, and he or she has no right to a sight?
Do you think matter has cohered together from its diffuse float, and the soil is on the surface, and water runs and vegetation sprouts, for you only, and not for him and her?

Notes: I don’t treat metaphysical conditions. Please refer patient to colleague for ongoing care; Drs. W.C. Williams or Oliver Wendell Holmes may be good fits.

ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW?
To die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.

Notes: Patient has requested DNR order. Have Denise fax necessary paperwork to The Grass.