Service

She went from person to person
placing orders. Other people came to fill them
while she juggled I-wonder-how-many-people's
expectations of service and care.

If I were in a restaurant,
my order would be free after such a wait.
But this is the ER, payment comes up front
where I'm neither the product,
nor treated as the customer,
though I was well within my rights to say
No thank you, send the meds back.
How was she to know I prefer the waning pain
to a shot in the a**?

Look Away

10 December 2011

The pot boils,

the flower blooms,

the writing fades,

the light glooms.

We watch without blinking,

eyes watering, winking--

still, the child grows,

flourishes, goes

when we look away.

Topography

5 December 2011

A barely visible cross-hatch of history

lies below my eyes;

a topographical diary of thirty-five years’

experience, foul and fair, each impression

faintly faded as a fabric’s fold

that will never lay flat

no matter how hot the iron,

no matter how hard the press.