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Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Poem: From the Hospital Window by Doug Holder

 ****Beth Israel Hospital,  Boston, MA.



My wife
rests in
her cancer
bed,
as some
nefarious,
chaotic weed
blooms and feeds
in her body.


I look out the window
to the towers
of Boston University
they pierce
the gray day
and I can not
forget them.

I see
West Campus
the high-rise dorms
where I lived
psychotic
from bad weed
I picked up
from a joker 
on the Common,
throwing bags of urine
out the window
afraid to be
exposed in the
men's room.

Downed by a Green Line trolley
on Commonwealth Ave
woke up faceup...
shocked 
on the track.

A man in the Rat
in Kenmore Square
guarding his beer
saw me in
my army jacket
and long hair
(if that was possible)
I was
a rebel from the
broad lawns and
narrow minds
of the Long Island suburbs,
He cocked his
hat and head,
" Hey, asshole
I want to suck
your ass bone dry."

I felt all this
hate....
Nixon
and Watergate,
nude streakers
on Nickerson Fields
rush the goals
breasts and penises
flap in the wind
in protest.

A remnant of the SDS rises
in my philosophy class
with no due respect
and challenges
the tenured pomposity
of the professor.

Frisbees fly 
through the air
in disparate directions
like the mayhem
in my head.

I greedily
munch cashews
in the 
TV room
(like they were
some elixir)
in the Sherman Union
wondering why the White Album
only speaks to me
and are 'they'
outside the door?

4 comments:

  1. Wow, a profound poem defying powerlessness over the present wild weeds embrace They have fed the past forward, in which you have defined and surrendered to the present. Bridget

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  2. Doug thanks for this dystopian yet really kick ass poem of such force like weeds like seeds like cancer cells and the struggling fighting days hours minutes. grasping breaths that make me awake and disturbed how this world can be so revolting yet amazing to behold. Moving. Thanks Doug for such soul searching soul battling poem

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  3. Doug, a powerful poem. Thank you.

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  4. So powerful a poem that often would not come forth if it were not in the midst of such a terrible crisis, as you were, Doug. I only met Dianne once but she was a picture of grace and beauty that etched into my mind. My heart to yours.

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