JOHNMICHAEL SIMON POETRY

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