today, my darling wife meets a neurosurgeon
it turns out the herniation of a disk
is pressing on the spine
causing numbness, discomfort, and potentially
paralysis…
unable to focus or concentrate
I find myself meditating
on worst case scenarios
perhaps the sullen poet in me
has been waiting for tangible crisis –
brooding dude in a foul mood
not enough sick time to make the trip
I sit in an office
thinking about interstate travel
doctors office magazines
and the sterile smell of the smaller,
more important waiting room
void of reading material
but full of fun tongue depressors and
knobs and dials on the blood pressure cuff –
Inmates surround my tiny desk
asking questions about their degree path
inquiring about next term’s schedule
and can I print for them…
all the while
I am not even in my body…
instead I float
hovering near the mental image of my wife
alone in a waiting room
calmly reading US Weekly
while the fate of the next 40 years
of our lives
lays on a MRI on a desk in an office –