Issue 9 Poetry
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In the Season of Hospice
Like Aspen leaves adrift on yellowed-cold,
we flutter, down from youth – to frailty.
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In the Eyes of a Medical Walker
I plan on getting you around the house
as you hobble from room to room
with your right leg bandaged up
and swollen from a recent surgery.
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I Held Her Hand
The emergency department, a bustling fray,
Trucks backed up in the ambulance bay.
A mother and child, full of fear,
Scared of needles, lots of tears.
So much the child couldn’t understand,
I took a moment. I held her hand.
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Haiku for Weight Loss
Twelve ounces coffee
with skim milk, not whole, then walk
forty minutes flat
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Car Ride Fades to Black
Our radio wouldn’t dare blast through my father’s orations;
he’d tote his small son on drug rep calls, navigate back roads, the ultimate detail man.
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Between Worlds
I watch my mom for signs she’s going to be leaving me soon, even as she’s still here. She looks more fragile. A little more lost. Is she?
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and the other’s gold
Together, we’ll visit our friend
who no longer knows us, and pluck
those pesky little whiskers
off her chin.
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Aboard Sirène in the Morning
There’s nothing as beautiful as a marina at dawn
the clacking of ducks
the sky clearing away
the remnants of a storm
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Transition States
Transition states not stasis not static
No longer substrate, not yet product
Highest energy on reaction coordinates
Breaking and making covalent bonds
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A Radiant Horseshoe
For a DaTscan
to confirm
I have Parkinson’s,
I am injected
with a radioactive tracer.
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A Nurse’s Leaving
I will bundle you in blankets and place you
on porches in cure chairs to keep you
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Receding
Sometimes forgetting is willful, even hoped for.
How he carried himself as he walked across the yard,
Between one building and the next.
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Quadriceps Tear While Carpentering
I pivoted on the balls of my feet,
to not fall off to the left or the right
but to sit me down on the flat part
of the roof.
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In the Waiting Room
The man whose wife is having a baby
crouches in his chair like a fetus,
can feel himself kicking.
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Heaven, the Land, and Humans in 2023, 2023 天地人, 鍾倫納
Arctic icebergs are breaking up,
Melting Antarctica airport-runways need new sub,
Strong gales have torn apart buildings, Oops:
Flooding also moved houses like floating cups.