Max cheers long liver! You are a youngster!!!remember to take your own
biro!!
Cheers P

-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Max Richards
Sent: 13 April 2011 02:03
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: snap: false alarm

snap: false alarm
 
ŒI need a break -
never to sleep
in any bed but this
would be a mistake.¹

I got my wish - on wheels,
an ambulance stretcher
that unfolds and rolls,
in the charming care
 
of a paramed pair -
not that I slept.
My chest pain had faded -
but at seventy-three

it would be a mistake
not to take seriously
even a minor quake -
some worse aftershock

thereabouts might lurk.
Sailing in on the freeway
I felt in limbo rather
like when you¹re in transit

with strangers from airport
terminal to waiting plane
on a hushed vehicle
wondering: have your bags,

just checked in,
found their way
to the same plane?
They checked me in

at the best Emergency
anywhere in Melbourne,
in my wife¹s opinion -
Epworth in Richmond.

Hadn¹t they done her proud
the night we turned up there
with her leaping-puppy-tooth-
torn index finger
 
(mistaken for pizza)
that quiet weekend,
and they sewed it up
and cheered us up

and sent us away
happy to pay?
Yes, and my turn now,
accompanied by her

(she drove in by herself
to smile at me as I arrived)
trundled in to cubicle five,
invited to shift myself

(rather than risk
their backs, I've
no doubt) sideways
onto the high white bed.

I need to levitate, I said,
but shuffled across cheerily.
Now Nurse Joseph Lopez
with accented Eenglish

introduced himself
and looked after me.
Tests were begun,
finding nothing rapidly.

All very re-assuring,
but wait for the blood test,
the x-rays, and a second
blood test, hours later.

All so re-assuring!
The printout sheet showed
cardiac rhythms of minimal
disturbance. Doze then,

and listen to the sadder
cases in the other cubicles.
The man in pain foulmouthed,
the dippy old biddy

in number six who wanted
a Bible - that¹s how it sounded -
was told none was available,
but - ŒA Biro!¹ she demanded.

I asked nothing, only
that the hours pass quickly,
Dawn was at hand, 
Joseph Lopez kindly saw me

to the accountant
for a modest invoice,
and she then amazed me
by running outside

to secure me a cab.
(ŒStay where you are,
it¹s cold outside.¹)
That¹s the Epworth for you.

I was driven towards the sliver
of new moon in the east -
heartfelt (painless chest)
in this long-liver.

               April 2010
 
Max Richards, hale and fairly hearty