Summiting

The renowned surgeon must surely
have been a preternaturally gifted child
a phenomenon that would have pleased
his parents enormously and whose pride
in their offspring can only be imagined.
It is hard for his patients to imagine
actually, that this slender, very young
man with the cherubic countenance
and the professional enthusiasm of
a mountain climber who professes in a
moment of exuberance that each surgery
he performs becomes yet another perfect
ascent of a forbidding mountain peak;
a man who could be the age of their
own grandchildren, has the capability
the amazing capacity to enter the portal
of their sundered sternum to mend their 
broken hearts. See there! he enthuses, 
proudly illuminating the chest X-ray 
taken a month post-surgery. It's perfect, 
a job well done! What can they do but 
agree, happy for his satisfaction but then
happier that his surgical expertise has
lengthened the age-shortened lease on life.