For Russell Hoxsie
By Dan Waters - August 10, 2006
From mumps to chicken pox and gout,
He's healed the world he writes about.
He captures in his poems and prose
What no one but your doctor knows.
Experienced a small disaster?
Need a fracture set in plaster?
Fixed with stitches or epoxy?
You went straight to Doctor Hoxsie.
Human to the very core,
A man of science and much more,
He helps explain the world around us
Using terms that won't confound us.
Soothing if you have a tumor,
Kind, but with a sense of humor,
Compassionate and full of moxie -
That's our famous Russell Hoxsie.
Dan Waters. Photo by Ralph Stewart
No stranger to the bees and birds,
No amateur with English words,
He paints the Island's hills and shores
With similes and metaphors.
At moments funny, sometimes solemn,
His Vineyard-spanning nature column
Is read from Chilmark to Biloxi.
Quite a tribute, Russell Hoxsie.
From toddlers to the oldest coots,
He's seen us in our birthday suits,
Yet somehow when he lifts his pen
Our dignity's intact again.
His fans of every shape and size
Feel gratitude they can't disguise.
Rotund or slender, round or boxy,
All give thanks to Russell Hoxsie.
It's obvious our Island loves
This poet with the rubber gloves,
This doctor with the hearty laugh
Who's done so much on our behalf.
The lives he's touched are many-fold,
In generations young and old;
So, green or grizzled, plain or foxy,
We raise this toast to Russell Hoxsie!
