I know the feeling, Max.
Minor is good. And welcome home asap...
Forgetful or no, but then what kept you awake was remembering....
Doug
On Nov 27, 2013, at 1:57 PM, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Best wishes Max dos should go in with you!!P
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Max Richards
> Sent: 27 November 2013 19:43
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: 'What Woke Me?'
>
> What woke me?
>
> Not the silence of the dogs,
> delivered yesterday
> to their carers,
>
> not the dawning city day
> of trams and early
> morning workers.
>
> Not the regular breathing
> of my sleeping wife
> late to bed preoccupied.
>
> Not certainly that I felt
> completely rested
> and ready for a new day.
>
> No, a phrase lodged
> in my mind from last night:
> Thursday I have surgery.
>
> (Minor, guys,
> a mere 'procedure',
> sent home pronto.)
>
> Not till afternoon, luckily.
> Pack a few things,
> catch a Malvern tram,
>
> alight as instructed,
> check in composedly.
> Yesterday they phoned
>
> asking about allergies,
> medications,
> tobacco, drink habits,
>
> could I walk up
> three flights of stairs?
> and did I have Alzheimer's?
>
> No, I said, rather too firmly.
> I should have said:
> ask my wife.
>
> And if she'd said Yes,
> I could have shouted:
> Not me! her! her!
>
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
http://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
Latest books:
Continuations & Continuations 2 (with Sheila E Murphy)
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=962
Recording Dates
(Rubicon Press)
Art is always the replacing of indifference by attention.
Guy Davenport
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