I’m living proof that/
A white man CAN dance when he/
ain’t got no rhy… thm.
Said while passing the nurses’ station, following my failed heart ablation procedure… They say they are going to “put it on the board.”
Followed by my quip:
“I’ll be up all evening$!”
My heart
is hyper-active.
Didn’t you know that?
At about 6 a.m. tomorrow
Dr. Wang
will run a catheter near
there,
up,
into my heart.
He will scar me
from the inside
so the dance
that my heart has done
for decades
will stop,
and I’ll finally
have
rhyyyyyy
thummmm.
(Beat.
Beat.)
Doo whop
Beat).
Can you imagine me
with more energy
and life
than I have
already?
That’s what “they”
say.
The only question I have is this:
Is this the best way
to let people know?
The morning of my eye surgery,/
another memory/
and her thumbnail moon, shiny,
again greeted me./
Never more with glasses to be./
I’d soon see/
Clearly,/
Near perfectly./
But she/
Won’t and wouldn’t see/
Me./
As I drove toward the city,/
and the facility/
where doctors waited patienty,/
Ironically,/
I couldn’t focus.