6d
WHAT THE THUNDER SAID
Removing his spectacles
the doctor pinched
the bridge
of his nose
rubbed his eyes roughly
closed them
open them again.
Rain trickled down
the window pane.
Outside
a red tricycle
stood its ground
as if
it were an art
installation.
It's red made more red
by the rain's fury.
Beside it a white teddy bear
soaked to the skin
a sodden thing.
It couldn't be more sorrier
"Well....doctor...well...?"
the mother pleaded.
He turned to her
his words lost
in the thunder.
*
Once upon a time ago when I was in my youth I met a delightful old man on a train who looked like he could have been the country doctor in countless b&w movies. He called me "young fella me lad!" We traded all of THE WASTE LAND between us...line for line...."i grow old I grow old...I shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled!" After we had dispensed with THE WASTE LAND we started on every poem we knew. He was surprised that I knew what I knew. I started to recite ~William Carlos Williams RED WHEELBARROW for him and he started crying. It turned out that in his youth he had indeed been a young doctor. He was called to a bedside where a little girl was dying and he had to tell the mother. She wouldn't accept this from him and clinging to the hope that he was young and looked even younger that he didn't know what was what. He looked out the window before he had to tell her and saw what he saw. Williams was also a doctor and I had read somewhere that he too looked out a window and saw.....the rest is poetry. So much depends upon....
Removing his spectacles
the doctor pinched
the bridge
of his nose
rubbed his eyes roughly
closed them
open them again.
Rain trickled down
the window pane.
Outside
a red tricycle
stood its ground
as if
it were an art
installation.
It's red made more red
by the rain's fury.
Beside it a white teddy bear
soaked to the skin
a sodden thing.
It couldn't be more sorrier
"Well....doctor...well...?"
the mother pleaded.
He turned to her
his words lost
in the thunder.
*
Once upon a time ago when I was in my youth I met a delightful old man on a train who looked like he could have been the country doctor in countless b&w movies. He called me "young fella me lad!" We traded all of THE WASTE LAND between us...line for line...."i grow old I grow old...I shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled!" After we had dispensed with THE WASTE LAND we started on every poem we knew. He was surprised that I knew what I knew. I started to recite ~William Carlos Williams RED WHEELBARROW for him and he started crying. It turned out that in his youth he had indeed been a young doctor. He was called to a bedside where a little girl was dying and he had to tell the mother. She wouldn't accept this from him and clinging to the hope that he was young and looked even younger that he didn't know what was what. He looked out the window before he had to tell her and saw what he saw. Williams was also a doctor and I had read somewhere that he too looked out a window and saw.....the rest is poetry. So much depends upon....
