She says, 'stay calm' as
she wraps a strap around
my upper arm, the strap attached to
a sphygmomanometer which measures
blood and puts me under pressure.

I'd like to meet a meter that never tried to
cheat her of a minute from a busy day,
a sphygmomanometer is just another way
of tripping up my tongue and syst or diastolics
are another load of bollix
that the meter tries to charge me for.

Results drip out like lemon curds,
tired, tired
lazy words,
numbers slumber on the dial and
in a while
I sleep too.