Kahlbaum
Catatonic
(In memory of Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum)
Ludwig had a cat, whose name was simply, 'Cat.'
That did mostly what
A cat does best
That is, spending most of his time at rest.
But the good doctor
Who studied man's behavior
Spoke often to his cat
About the workings of the mind, and this and that.
So in 1874, Karl Ludwig sat
Staring at his cat
Wondering what scientific discovery
Yet awaited his uncovery.
Seems all the great and renown
Had already placed their markers down
And there was little to be found
In plowing the psychic's hallowed ground.
Came first Aristotle
And others of lesser mettle
Who professed to understand
What was 'melancholy' of man.
Burton in his tome did write
Long and wide
Of the essence of melancholy
and its folly.
In his poem about pain and pleasure
He took far flung measure
Of what it constitutes
And how the mind pollutes.
Then along came Darwin (not the elder)
Who attempted to attribute to love and hunger
The forces of melancholy's strains
That caused to patients their many pains.
Freud, who read Darwin,
Claimed his bit of fame
Expanding on Sex
As it did man, perplex.
Kahlbaum thought it best to let be
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poem by Sidi J. Mahtrow
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