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No Comfort for a Nurse
The catheter is extracted
By means of a syringe
Inserted into the rubber tube
Which empties the liquid from the balloon
Trapping it inside the bladder
Enabling removal via the urethra
Like a skinned eel or dead fish
And how she had cried and remembered
And tried to forget before he was injured
In the war and sent back home
A relic, something to be laughed at
Or pitied, the subject of public house
Humor, lying there the whole time trying to preserve
His dignity, remembering old times
When after her day shift at the hospital
They had gone dancing
Holding each other as close as bark
Around a tree; now she was only needed
By all those old men in the ward
With their prostate and bladder problems
Requiring a change of diaper
A fresh bag, a word of reassurance
She felt cold and full of emptiness
Tried to reach out to him in the bed
Past the steady rhythm of his breathing
When he did not move
She hunched her back
Placed her palms between her thighs
Then tried to sleep
But no amount of comfort under blankets
Could warm her up
© Johnmichael Simon
2007
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