Clark, Louisa Clark, tried to
save her quadriplegic master
from death with dignity in
Switzerland.
I read that book wherever I went,
the waiting room of Dr Foxhall,
while picking up my new green
driving glasses at Armstrong
Colt Javitz McCain and Spaulding
The cover is imprinted in my brain
Shall I frame it and post it
on the side of the bed alongside
Starry Night?
Soon I'll be on the road again.
Still alive, still free, singing
like a bird as I go about the
jejeune tasks of everyday life.
Love them. Our Appointment in
Samara is up for grabs.
TO THY KNIFE I COMMEND MY SOUL
As the day of my surgery grows near
the demon sciatica
grows hungry
its torture has
failed to drown this swimmer
who comes up daily
for air.
How useless to taunt me with your newest games
when will you understand?
oh, if it makes you happy, demon,
i will call you by your right name
i’ll shout it aloud to the world,
o conjoined twin of the devil:
coward Lucifer
people in pain are sworn to secrecy
we must not speak our pain
it is how we remain unbroken
but demon lucifer has broken through
reading in bed last night
the breeze from an open window
caressing my hair
you grabbed my feeth
scraped the soles with
razor-sharp hay
I closed my book and howled
“you would do that, you loser!”
as the straw grew into hay bales
on Raytharn’s Farm
under a perfect sky
Aside: Frank Wolfe, miss you so much!!!
next, o demon, your poison has
spread up my tanned thighs
where two children sprang
and men lay there and sighed
now I am crushed beneath a
tractor
riderless
that digs furrows
a river of blood on
my sheets
smelling of
afterbirth.
your encore is
a vise
a vietnam cage that held
the captured warrior
screams muffled
as coward Lucifer
laughed in the clouds.
Time heals all.
time or surgery or death will be
your final demise.
Where go then, coward Lucifer?
When my demon leaves me
amnesia like the scent of
lilacs in spring
will walk with me through
the hospital ward
twenty years of pain
and You
erased forever from my mind.
WHO DOESN'T LOVE MASHED POTATOES?
They have practically no flavor
yet can be dressed up in new clothes
like turkey gravy, garlic and mushrooms,
and grated cheddar or blue cheese.
I particularly enjoy them since
their carb count is a disaster
for a diabetic. Not that I'm
confessing to that awful fate
that can remove your toes,
your vision, and put you
in an early grave.
As I told Dr Foxhall today
at my 1 o'clock appointment,
I mount my bicycle, and ride
like the wind, without
moving an inch from my
upstairs bedroom. I think
I've fallen asleep while
riding, but no one's
ever hurt.
SCIATICA
Everything is shut down,
A purple curtain has been drawn
across the place I lie.
Books stacked on the floor
cannot be opened or even
acknowledged as friends.
The ring of the phone goes unanswered
The tump of the mailbox
is merely a sound,
a cqll to which I cannot reply.
For I am lying on the couch,
my new home,
The covers are puylled up to my eyes,
as if peace and softness
can vanquish the misery inside.
One day the leg is mine,
bending, obeying,
the next day it's a freak,
not leg so much as
folded-up ironing board,
hot with pain,
begging to be carried
or laid down to rest,
its sizzling miles of track
crackling at unexpected moments.
Just the two of us,
Pain and I,
lying side by side
under the covers,
an indecent pair,
A tireless lover
who won't leave my side.
alstroemeria - Wikipedia
ATARVASTATIN
Shhh! We fooled the insurance
companies, for now, the money-
hungry devils, by taking Atar-
vastatin instead of Simva-
statin.
In honor of my clever doctor,
who should be on the Best Doctor
List in Philadelphia, I have
memorized the name,
Atarvastatin.
Not as hard as I thought.
Look up in the night sky
and you'll see it twinkling
just beyond the moon.
You may, if you wish, pray
upon it and call it Hashem.
AT JADE'S PARTY, Warren and Roger, Roger's wife, Chris, and I were discussing names for God, including Yahweh
CARRY ME INSIDE LIKE THE PIETA
Could not wait to get my aching
feet home but like the good girl
I am, brought my cart to the
corral and saw them lying
forgotten in the cart.
Alstroemeria dressed in green
like key lime pie. Hugging them
close I limped my way back into
the Giant. Here, Ann, I said
transferring them to her arms,
someone left these in their
shopping cart.
Years ago the late Dr Kevin Harris
who lived on Exton Road with his
family, delivered these self-same
flowers to Abington Hospital
to perk up patients as only
flowers can.
Look, I've unearthed Kevin,
who's probably doing
chin-ups on a star
while I'm listening
to Bob Perkins on the jazz
station and watching for the
first flash of lightening
and horrific clap of thunder
which will send Scott's
dog, Spanky, under the
bed, except he's dead.
REM MURPHY wondered how I could write so many poems, and good ones at that.
I have a facility for it, I wrote. And I'm very grateful.
I SPENT THE MORNING AT CLOVERLY PLAZA in Jenkintown, PA
Cast of characters:
Jane the phlebotomist at Quest Diagnostics
New electronic sign-in pad at Quest
Reader's Digest I read with great info including the word "abulomania" or inability to make decisions
Nina, hair cutter and waxer at Supercuts in the same shopping center
Robert, older gent getting his dyed brown hair cut
Jacob, his grandson, about 5 yrs old
Jane had a busy day, doing lab tests for a dozen folks
before I was taken in, wearing my Storm King Sculpture
Garden cap.
I said not a word as she pushed the needle into what might be
a fine heroin vein, except I was too scared to do it, when I
had the chance
The pain was terrible - we'll say it en francais - terrible! -
and then it stopped.
Stupefied, I said, "You mean you got four vials already?"
Yes, ma'am.
"What's that plastic thing around your neck?"
"It's my Blue Tooth," she said.
We wished each other a good day. When I got
outside I pulled up the lavender sleeve on my
shirt and looked at the thick piece of gauze.
Bloody! Bloody as if I'd had a tooth pulled.
Yes, that new medicine, Plavix, loves to
make me bleed and to look like a leopard
with black and blue spots at unexpected
places on my lower exteriors.
***
Walking back to my car, I saw a Supercuts,
which might be misspelled as the delightful
SuperCats.
The mag I chose was an Architectural
Digest, as I stood waiting for Nina.
A gorgeous palace in Hue, Vietnam
shone half-heartedly among the pages
Good, Jacob? I asked.
How do you know my name?
Your grandfather called you Jacob.
"I like your sandals," I said.
His mother, wherever she was, knew how to dress her son,
just as I dressed my Daniel Paul in sandals, bought from
dark, gloomy Santarian's.
Tina did a nice job on me. I no longer qualify to be
The Bearded Lady in the circus and my hair is
nicely feathered.
Come visit and tell me what you think.
