They sat there
side by side
in the fall sun
late day spilling
onto the papers
on the doctor's
shimmer polished
desk of cognitive
tests
They sat there only
as a favor to their
family's urging
his eyes drifting to
the billowing sails
of a model ship
wondering at the thousands
of tiny tied knots
she almost dozing
stroking the soft
silk fabric of the chair
in the office of the doctor
in the late afternoon sun
fall out the latticed windows
bright trees dropping leaves
lazy - and the light spilling
into the words drifting
over them as their child
lied quiet as was her nature
just her nature
quiet and limp limbed
still
across their laps
sweet drool sparkling in the
light as the doctor
delicately attempted
the first incision
of all possibility
When I read this on PA I didn't quite know what was being done to the child wh lay across their laps. Now I'm thinking it was a psychological event rather than a physical one. Am I right?
ReplyDeleteI love when there are different ideas about something I've written. I actually had in mind two young parents who had come to an office with a child who was basically non-functioning...drooling in the sunlight ... and a doctor who was giving them grim news as they were drifting about the room... Having said that... "what do I know?" In another life-time when I taught I always encouraged readers that there was NO one interpretation of a poem - in fact I think that that notion destroyed the love of poetry for many who began their school years delighting in rhyme and image and then were led to believe that poetry was some sort of linguistic maze to which the 'teacher' held the key. I don't believe the teacher holds the key or the writer for that matter. I think the reader holds the key. Thank you for commenting!
ReplyDeleteI agree. And then there are times when we wish the reader could see exactly what we mean! :)
ReplyDelete