A Patient Speaks His Mind

A Patient Speaks His Mind

I’m glad you came. I mean, you ring the bell,
the nurses never show. I feel like shit.
There’s all these tests
and no one says when I can leave
or tells me what comes next.

How’s Ellen, by the way?—that’s nice,
but listen, this is cute: the other night
I dreamt about an airport somewhere
that had those moving walkways
heading for Terminal whatever, you know the kind?

and there I was in my pajamas
on this rubber gizmo
along with happy people headed off
to God knows where … ’til wham!
a nurse came barging in
and I was almost there:You follow me?

David Chandler