Emergency Clinic
Caustic implacable
poem unto and contra:
I do not soothe minor
injuries I do
not offer I require
close history
of the case apprentice-
ship in past and fresh catastrophe
The skin too quickly scabbed
mutters for my debriding
For every bandaged wound
I’ll scrape another open
I won’t smile
while wiping
your tears
I do not give
simplehearted love and nor
allow you simply love me
if you accept regardless
this will be different
Iodine-dark
poem walking to and fro all night
un-gainly
unreconciled
unto and contra
First published at Monthly Review (2008)
