I can't just bounce from event to event
Without trying to make sense of the sequence
But nothing orderly or meaningful
Emerges from the blur
Of white coats and IV's and stethoscopes
And stents and fine needle probes
Lumpectomies, endoscopies, hemicolectomies -
It's all a blur of white noise, a wish-wash
I cannot imbibe.

I'm thankful to leave the hospital
In one piece -
Alive.

Looking and Doing

There are two kinds of people:
the people looking and the people doing.

The people doing are always looking
suspiciously at the people looking.

The people looking lick their wounds
and climb the closest tree.

I've wound myself tightly
around many maypoles.

I've tried to spring into action,
to leap into being.

But I always end up
relearning the same lesson:

Your place is here -
Don't budge