In The Presence of Silence
(or, Waiting Outside A Doctor's Clinic)

 

What can be said of it beyond the
prancings of the sick, the hypo-
chondriacal, and the merely
worrisome rich? This is that
        moment
in one's breathing nervous life
        that can easily
be likened to waiting for one's
girlfriend for an hour or more at
a bus stop surrounded by the
dreadful smirks or frowns of
grimacing strangers. But what it

is that makes a difference
here, in this hospital corridor,
is the threat of a defect itself,
        carried
by each one. Embarrassingly
        devoid of
romance, unless you begin
to think of famous people
and their romanticized bouts
with some cancer or some such
dreadful contextual cum spiritual
        puzzle.

What I'm trying to say now, sans
Romantic lyricism or singing,
is we are all here at one time
or another—to be reminded of
the waste of time in the sup-
posedly full life of struggles
we've had, including me at
start-of-recognition 36, to
be urged to begin anew.

Well, at least until our happy
        dialogue with
the doctor. There, we're back
to our logical selves again,
forgetting the greatness of silent
men and women of note!

And now that I've recognized
the vanity, I finish this poem
with the same vain claim
to having escaped humiliation
(like telling one dead from
rectal cancer of having
probably lived as an asshole):

just as some are fortunate
to be free of disease, I am
perhaps fortunate to be poet,
too, able to provide unhealthy
readers a non-god—my

rich equivalent to a corridor
prayer, dignified though obscure.

 

 

 

Copyright © 1999, 2004 Vicente-Ignacio Soria de Veyra. All rights reserved. Readers are welcome to view, save, file and print out single copies of this webpage for their personal use. No reproduction, display, performance, multiple copy, transmission, or distribution of the work herein, or any excerpt, adaptation, abridgment or translation of same, may be made without written permission from the author. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this work will be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

HIT YOUR BROWSER'S "BACK" BUTTON TO GO BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS