Clinic

~
Clinic

Like the top of a great grey whale
Or a cartoon snake resting
On a tropical branch,
Like a section of escalator rail,
A mitten for handling radioactive
Pellets or a bent, deflated
Pontoon,
The arm of this institutional chair
Invests the waiting room with
Ponderous anonymity as
Patients shift their gazes and fuss
With magazines no one will read and
Look longingly at the door which
Opens frequently for one-at-a-time, and – finally,
Me.

Jack Wilson

~