The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 2/11/08

[BlueIris]

"A Certain Light"

He had taken the right pills the night before.
We had counted them out

from the egg carton where they were numbered so there'd be no
mistake.
He had taken the morphine and the prednisone and the amitriptyline

and Florinef and vancomycin and Halcion too quickly
and had thrown up in the bowl Joe had brought to the bed—a thin string

of blue spit—then waited a few minutes, to calm himself,
before he took them all again. And had slept through the night

and the morning and was still sleeping at noon—or not sleeping.
He was breathing maybe twice a minute, and we couldn't wake him,

we couldn't wake him until we shook him hard calling, John wake up now
John wake up—Who is the president?

And he couldn't answer.
His doctor told us we'd have to keep him up for hours.

He was all bones and skin, no tissue to absorb the medicine.
He couldn't walk unless two people held him.

And we made him talk about the movie: What was the best moment in
On the Waterfront? What was the music in Gone with the Wind?

And for seven hours he answered, if only to please us, mumbling
I like the morphine, sinking, rising, sleeping, rousing,

then only in pain again—but wakened.
So wakened that late that night in one of those still blue moments

that were a kind of paradise, he finally opened his eyes wide,
and the room filled with a certain kind of light we thought we'd never see again.

Look at you two, he said. And we did.
And Joe said, Look at you. And John said, How do I look?

And Joe said, Handsome.

—Marie Howe

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. watching a story unfold

sad, tragic, beautiful.

Thanks.

[BlueIris]

3. Thanks. I hope you are feeling better, Tuesday.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear BlueIris!

Now, that's scary!

And eloquent...

I felt as though I were standing there, watching it unfold, afraid he was dying...:scared:

Thank you for this, and for all of them...

:hug:

[BlueIris]

4. You are always welcome and—hey. That's a WHOLE lotta hearts you have there.

Nice!