A Season For Everything

SUMMER

wet bedsheet
from summer heat
or sudden pain?

throbbing pain
I change my turtleneck shirt
lump on my neck

sudden high fever
in mid summer noon
mom panics

early to bed
early to rise
still forsaken tired

sleepless nights
start to talk with me
in bed


FALL

after my appointment
outside the clinic
a maple leaf pats me

diagnosed at last
on my way home
withered leaves lead me

a crow flies above
the almost bare tree
premonition

full moon, night's deep
still wide awake from
the doctor's news

starched white sheet
covers now my sickbed
night falls early


WINTER

freezing white petals
start to pour in
glad my sickbed's warm

poems in my mind
while the snow falls
my meds kicking in

one winter night
on my sickbed I opened
my black album

on my sickbed
sound of rattling bottles of pills
and murmured prayers

the doctor comes in
new meds, strong ones
a snowstorm starts


SPRING

frankly I've been told
'no more cure, dear'
I sigh

in spring time
everything comes alive
except for me

smell of carnation
am I now laying on my
deathbed?

a sparrow sings
a song so sad
it's more like a lament

doctors gave up
my files now buried
in their memories