(October, 2004)
Remember this
This purple flow’r
This silv’ry green leaf
This still fountain
Beneath the earth
Beauty must be
A memory
(October, 2004)
Remember this
This purple flow’r
This silv’ry green leaf
This still fountain
Beneath the earth
Beauty must be
A memory
(October, 2004)
All the crying, all
The clinging – death sits patient
But implacable
(October, 2004)
When you are so sick and feeble
you can’t get up from the bed
the nurses will still change it
They ingeniously
position you
knees bent, hands crossed against chest,
on the upper third of the bed
then unwrap the skillfully folded sheet
and lift you until you are cradled
swinging above the bed
while they efficiently
place sheets fresh and clean as Eden
And you weep
as a baby might weep
seeking comfort
seeking a wise mother
who will make all the horror
go away
(October, 2004)
Past the hospital
a thunderstorm – unruly
demons are unleashed
Johanna Shapiro, PhD
Our oldest daughter turns thirteen,
beautiful, athletic
tall and straight
One day she comes home crying:
The nurse at school said
I have scowly-osis
She’s right
Tall and straight
inside her spine grimaces and spits
a malevolent snake
two curves conspire to create
the appearance of flawless beauty
Johanna Shapiro, PhD
My grandfather was born
in Rumania
He came to this country
at the age of two
because his father got himself
involved on the wrong end of
a failed revolution
to oust a despot king
Johanna Shapiro, PhD
Sometimes I wonder about the doctor
who for a moment held my daughter’s life
in his hands
and then held my grandchild
What did he feel when my son-in-law told him
to put my daughter first?
What were his thoughts when my daughter begged him
to keep her baby safe?
Did he pray for the wisdom of Solomon?
Did he weigh the advantages of cervical massage
versus an IV drip?
Did he feel a tiny bit of love
for this young couple, so afraid, so alone?
Johanna Shapiro, PhD
Your spine is just a bunch of bones
Arranged in some kind of order
To hold you erect
To differentiate you from the apes
But when the spine fails
When it crumbles in on itself
When the discs compress, bulge, rupture
Then you meet your essential nature
Johanna Shapiro, PhD
I am so sorry…
I’m sorry, I have to take this call.
I didn’t say much because
I can see you haven’t really processed the news yet
I know someone who lived for years
After she took mineral compounds
Johanna Shapiro, PhD
Too soon after my surgery
we sneak out to breakfast
truant school kids
in search of guilty pleasures
But we are grandparents
respectable if rickety
The tang of sea-stroked breeze
is only made keener
and the succulence of the
fruit and yogurt sweeter
by the knowledge of risk