Stress Test

Composed 4/11/16
Description: For Day 10 of NaPoWriMo. Based on a conversation I had today.

She was worried she’d die
Face down on the treadmill

Doctors would lick and stick electrodes to her
Watch the beeping of her heart and
She’d begin
Step after step breathing heavy
Up and up and across that digital mile
Sweat beading in her brow

They’d watch her spike
And go flat

What she didn’t remember was
Her heart had experienced more than that mile
She’d known stress of great intensity
Chronic worry and work to the point of fatigue
She cared immensely about every need
Her heart beat along with the
Buzzing in her head and the
Heartbeats of everyone around her
She’d lived a hundred stressful lives
Heart thumping with the emotion of a hundred miles

What she didn’t know was that she’d already passed the test
This was just a formality

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Vulnerable

Composed 4/16/15
Description: For Day 16 of NaPoWriMo. Technically written yesterday, just late in posting!

I was sitting in the hospital as my uncle was having surgery when I wrote this.

You think you’re made of marble
Solid, prowling beasts
But take a knife to stomach
You’re just compressed, vacuum sealed
Meat

In sun you run without worry
But in dark the rot sets in
You thought you’re made of marble
But you’re a miracle, a temple
Of skin

Glory Days

Composed 2/19/15
Description: For Writing 201: Day 5, which tells us to write an elegy using fog and metaphor.

Thinking about the past and fog together reminded me of dementia, about which I have ever-increasing experience.

Did you know her in the glory days?
When she smiled that Hepburn smile?
When she danced to Frank Sinatra
And flirted with the navy boys?

Did you see her marry on a whim?
Rub the growing life inside?
Fretting over baby books
And shopping for baby carriages?

Did you see her raising four young boys?
Commanding their whos and whats and whens?
Sending each off with a bride?
Then Tuesday nights with girlfriends and bridge?

I never saw her this clearly
No, I only see her in the fog
Sometimes she reaches out
Sometimes I catch a glimpse
But the fog pulls her back in

Only you remember the glory days
So cherish every memory
Because once she stepped into the fog
They weren’t so certain
They’re mostly gone