Shingles

Outside:

seagulls debate in immoderate language
as waves piddle along the sand, then retreat, embarrassed

the suited neighbours walk in serious single file
scrunching along the shell path, as intent as penguins

and tamarillos dangle from their trees
like recently released testicles

While in here:

the shingle bank on my left chest
stirs, stabs, burns and blisters

transient comfort comes in coloured hotties
as Lapsang Souchong sluices down the pills

while I lie like a pen lost beneath a prescription sheet
the virus is doing all the writing

– 148 –

Inscription II

with:

the stricken citizen, the striking docs
the whispering, the wheedling, the needling
and the grace contained in a bag full of blood

the cut-off jeans; the blood-filled boots
the person on the plinth
and the stethoscope filled with a flood tide of screams

the patient father, the haughty daughter,
the phoning lawyer, the illness, the pills,
and the murky pus of sibling ill will

the strident bugs, the resisting cells
the lumps that won't fade
and the shrinking hopes of their chosen hosts

the ring sign, the Q sign
the succussion splash, the spine aligned
and the fat man stuck in the CT scan

Critical Care and the critics there
the cough docs, the spot docs
and the whole sad bolus of bowel docs

the plainly odd, the Hindu gods
the Christians, the Catholics, the agnostics
and those of us who no longer pray

teach us to care and not to care
teach us to be skilled

– 149 –

Mini Mental Status Exam

This is a simple memory test:
First can you tell me: who's the PM?
Is it morning, noon, or time for rest?
Tell me today's date again:

What's your name, what did you eat for breakfast?
Try to retain this list: a watch, brief rain, a book, a pen.
Take 7 from 100 and repeat until nothing's left.
Now try that subtraction sum again.

Remember the gist of this sentence:
'A nation needs a strong secure supply of wood.'
I've drawn a star above a wooden fence.
Copy it exactly if you would.

Now, let's recall the items in that list,
if I can remember it.