Psychiatrists Are Not the Retiring Kind

After reading that 46% of American psychiatrists are over 65 years old.

The past is prologue riding close behind.
Give up your practice? And do what instead?
Psychiatrists are not the retiring kind!

Fearless explorers of the human mind
With stacks of journals that must be read,
Filled with warnings of what’s close behind.

Assess your options when you’re so inclined.
If life without patients fills you with dread-
Work harder! You’re not the retiring kind!

A career is a tightrope spun from twine,
Thin as the years before you fall dead.
The past is prologue riding close behind.

Go to your office, continue the grind,
Ignore the looming mystery ahead.
Let the wounded become the retiring kind!

You’ve written your notes, a few unsigned,
Each day a search for the decisive thread.
Your past is prologue, arrived right on time,
And alas, dear colleagues, it’s closing time.

Dr Berlin is Instructor in Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA.