Jeff Gremmel's The Clinic

In Jeff Gremmels’s “The Clinic,” Gremmels attempts to solve the medical case of a fourteen-year-old boy who is brought in for stomachaches. The essay opens in an examination room by describing the patient’s physical condition. Gremmels proceeds to give a typical checkup to the boy, during which he discovers small bruises populating the patient’s body. Unable to determine the cause for these unfamiliar symptoms, Gremmels describes his examination to the attending physician. The physician identifies the symptoms as the result of self-mutilation caused by the boy’s depression, something Gremmels had not considered in his initial synopsis. The essay concludes with Gremmels reading a poem from a crumpled piece of paper, written by the boy during