Like the Mayo Clinic

A friend from China is here on a work visa.
There, he was a neurosurgeon,
Trained in Shanghai at one of their top five hospitals.
“It would be like the Mayo Clinic.”

Neurosurgery, a discipline so demanding that
A third of the hopefuls quit before graduation.

He came to do research in America,
And finds himself, at forty,
Doing residency in the Bronx,
Working with gunshot wounds and knife wounds.
It is so other, like a third country to dwell in.

Although I am not a neurosurgeon,
I, too, have found myself in an unexpected place
That feels entirely unsuited,
That does not recognize my gifts or my brilliance.

I have wanted someone to widen their eyes
In belated astonishment that I was trained in a place
Like the Mayo Clinic.