Surgery
The surgery actually went well. Recovery room about
an hour. When your child is the one is surgery
and recovery, the clock on the wall seems to stop.
The minutes just drag by. You think you're all occupied
with talk of the rain and with the reading of articles
in Ladies Home Journal or AARP only to look up at the clock
and find that a mere five minutes have passed.
Wes was very nauseated after surgery. We didn't get to come
home until 5:15 (got there at 6:20 a.m.--rain pouring--dark.)
He feels better tonight. I took he and five of his friends
to a Chinese restaurant(I dropped them off and went back
to get them). He called and told me they were going to walk
across the street to the video store to get some campy horror
films, so I picked them up at the video store.
I can hear them in there laughing as I type.
He is uncomfortable but not really in pain. Just have to make
sure he doesn't get an infection.
Leaving for the Dodge Poetry Festival Wednesday, so his dad
needs to know what to look for (signs of infection). So, we'll
cover that ground tomorrow.
Little sleep last night. Had just fallen asleep (an hour or so)
when Wes woke me up telling me it sounded like a tornado
outside. We had warnings all night.
Oh the rain and the wind and the thunder and lightning...
on and on and on all night. No power for hours. Little
sleep, but we are better today.
Just about to finish the Callas biography. Didn't know
she was only 53 when she died. Didn't know so much
about her life.
Tired. Stats homework tomorrow. Need to go see Mom.
She called today and told me she stayed in the closet
beneath the stairwell for some time last night
while the winds were howling.
I don't know what she and Dad used to do in these circumstances.
I guess I never asked.
2 comments:
Dodge poetry festival?
Lucky duck.
I went once a few years ago and it was one of the best roadtrips and best vacations I've ever taken.
Stanley Kunitz read his poem about Halley's comet and I cried.
It was really something to see him. I mean, he was ancient, very frail, could barely walk up to the microphone but the instant he began reading, he was transformed. His voice was strong and unwavering and I swear, his skin was so thin, so transparent that I could see his soul shining out of him. It chokes me up right now just remembering that moment.
He was one of those people that I secretly hoped would live forever. As it is, he lived to be 100 years old, which is a small piece of forever, I suppopse.
Dodge poetry festival. Autumn and poetry. Ah, lucky you.
(I'm sure you already know this poem, but here it is again. I can barely read it now. The last four lines, that little boy on the roof...make me cry.)
Halley's Comet
Miss Murphy in first grade
wrote its name in chalk
across the board and told us
it was roaring down the stormtracks
of the Milky Way at frightful speed
and if it wandered off its course
and smashed into the earth
there'd be no school tomorrow.
A red-bearded preacher from the hills
with a wild look in his eyes
stood in the public square
at the playground's edge
proclaiming he was sent by God
to save every one of us,
even the little children.
"Repent, ye sinners!" he shouted,
waving his hand-lettered sign.
At supper I felt sad to think
that it was probably
the last meal I'd share
with my mother and my sisters;
but I felt excited too
and scarcely touched my plate.
So mother scolded me
and sent me early to my room.
The whole family's asleep
except for me. They never heard me steal
into the stairwell hall and climb
the ladder to the fresh night air.
Look for me, Father, on the roof
of the red brick building
at the foot of Green Street—
that's where we live, you know, on the top floor.
I'm the boy in the white flannel gown
sprawled on this coarse gravel bed
searching the starry sky,
waiting for the world to end.
Thanks for the Kunitz poem, L. I actually have not read it before but will read it again. That last line. My, my. Yes, waiting for the world to end.
Makes me think of that night the Goodyear Blimp flew over this tiny little town I live in (not that the blimp can come close to waiting for Halley's comet to appear!).
I was 18 and working as a Medicine Technician at the hospital. A few of us climbed to the roof so we could see the blimp close up (it flew over at night).
It was strange and eerie seeing something that large in the sky above us and so near the ground.
(Visions of the Hindenburg were flashing through my head--yikes!)
Hell, it was a rare day we ever saw a plane go over (small airport here). I grew up near Oceania Naval Air Station and was accustomed to planes flying over, so it was hard to adjust to only trains. The Blue Angels practiced over my neighborhood.
Yep, I am going to Dodge. Wes is doing well and if he continues to do this well, I will be leaving after work Wednesday. I plan to get to West Virginia that night and then drive the rest of the way on Thursday (about 8 hours). I'm looking forward to the road trip--almost as much as the festival! I love to travel.
Now, I am going to go find Mr. Kunitz and read some of his work.
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