Hardware Sparrows (TR Smith)

Chemo #3


posted by Lissa mcKinley on Thursday, July 30, 2009 Edit





Lovely morning this morning. I'm sitting up on the 6th floor in the cancer center and the sun is pouring into my window and all is quiet here at 7:30am......quite lovely, really. More hair falling out and I think I won't have much by the weekend......I don't like this part much no matter how much I try to. I may not be getting both drugs today as my counts are a bit low, so we're waiting to hear back from the oncologist. For the moment, all is quiet and I am sitting here composing and prowling around for a poem. I think we can all use some hardware sparrows:



Hardware Sparrows (TR Smith)









Out for a deadbolt, light bulbs

and two-by-fours, I find a flock

of sparrows safe from hawks



and weather under the roof

of Lowe's amazing discount

store. They skitter from the racks



of stockpiled posts and hoses

to a spill of winter birdseed

on the concrete floor. How



they know to forage here,

I can't guess, but the automatic

door is close enough,



and we've had a week

of storms. They are, after all,

ubiquitous, though poor,



their only song an irritating

noise, and yet they soar

to offer, amid hardware, rope



and handyman brochures,

some relief, as if a flurry

of notes from Mozart swirled



from seed to ceiling, entreating

us to set aside our evening

chores and take grace where



we find it, saying it is possible,

even in this month of flood,

blackout and frustration,



to float once more on sheer

survival and the shadowy

bliss we exist to explore.







Lovely, really. Hope you like it. I am getting just one of my drugs and letting my counts recover before I get the other one again.



Feeling well and taking the final picture of my hair!