I feel for you, Max - and your wife, bed bound.
I have no grounds except instinct for saying this, but perhaps Part 11
could be collapsed together and not in tercets - it just feels right for
the syntax of it.
Andrew
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On 30 March 2016 at 16:43, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> No complaints here, Max. The first, sprightly, but feel the worry beneath
> the spright. Responsibilities well captured. Sense of the world's brittle
> intrusions and potentialities comes across well too, in the second, with
> its more measured pace.
>
> Bill
>
> On Wednesday, 30 March 2016, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > Not Complaining (twice)
> >
> > 1. On the Stair
> >
> > Climbing first time today the stair,
> > began again saying to myself:
> >
> > up the stairs that keep me fit
> > to the room that proves I’m not,
> >
> > resolving yet again to count
> > my climbs per day - but soon forget.
> >
> > Not complaining! This my day
> > till bedtime, is spent downstairs,
> >
> > on my mind the well-timed tray
> > she needs from early oatmeal
> >
> > through to nightcap herbal tea.
> > See to the dogs, keep the fridge
> >
> > well-stocked, read, wander the web,
> > write emails and would-be poems.
> >
> > Climb the stairs that keep me fit
> > to the room that proves I’m not:
> >
> > the tray is lowered on her knees,
> > I sink into the bedroom chair.
> >
> > ‘Strenuous!' I exclaim, a word
> > I over-use. My share of lunch,
> >
> > our sandwich, is the lion’s share,
> > watched by two Labradors.
> >
> > They’ve had their midday snack,
> > tend to forget - sense a lack.
> >
> > When I get my breath back
> > the three of us will clatter down,
> >
> > check weather at the window,
> > settle which goes out first
> >
> > (one at a time is easier)
> > and where, avoiding stairs, to go.
> >
> >
> > 2. Carer’s Lament
> > for Marilyn
> >
> > Upstairs the lonely sound of coughing,
> > not what I expect, but no doubt
> > part of the symptoms just now.
> >
> > It hurts to walk, bed is not
> > comfortable, is there some
> > pillow not yet tried, might help?
> >
> > I, when I step out,
> > look alertly about,
> > needing to report back
> >
> > to the bedridden one
> > current images - what
> > she’s missing, may yet
> >
> > enjoy should she be up to it.
> > How the high bedroom window
> > teems with life! - so long as
> >
> > her visual sensitivity tolerates
> > its brightness. Clouds are better,
> > dark ones moving their shapes,
> >
> > animals of every sort, calling
> > to be photographed. Many
> > reappear on Facebook, for
> >
> > friends to Like. I leave
> > teasingly sceptical remarks.
> > Cellphone and laptop are vital
> >
> > conduits to the free comings
> > and goings of others, who may
> > or may not feel for the bed-ridden.
> >
> > The sky obliges with many birds.
> > High slow hawks, they must be.
> > There! aren’t these hummingbirds?
> >
> > newly hatched in the neighbors’ tree?
> > We have no ledge to lodge a feeder.
> > When outside’s too bright, down
> >
> > comes the blind till soft evening.
> > All night the electric town glitters.
> > Car headlamps thread far streets.
> >
> > We will go out together, some
> > time soon. Meantime, what did
> > I see? was it fun out for the dogs?
> >
> > Here they are now, exercised but
> > not exhausted, no off-leash time.
> > They’d love to show her the park.
> >
> > They’re looking out the window
> > high above their street, where neighbours'
> > dogs walk (‘woof’); the bus starts up for
> >
> > Downtown, where she never goes now;
> > beyond descends one more
> > seaplane to the level lake, sliding
> >
> > out of sight to some cheery dock.
> > I remind her how three of us went
> > up without her, her two friends and I,
> >
> > in such a plane high in that sky.
> > Shapeless clouds I see nothing in
> > move over at an invalid’s pace.
>
--
Andrew
http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
Books available through Walleah Press
http://walleahpress.com.au
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