Courage

Courage: The willingness to embrace the Alien.

It was not the weather or the steps.
No fault was found with evil spirits
Or an ineffectual god.
Ray fell and he claimed the failure.

Face down in the grass
He thought his foot detached.
Fear and anger lay with him

Two days spent recovering from surgery,
In an Old Folks Storage dump
Masquerading as a “Rehab” center,
Followed by an abbreviated home stay

Re-entering the hospital,
His surgeon pointing to the infected leg,
Indicated that “amputation” could not be ruled out.

I entered Ray’s room dressed in a hospital shroud,
To find Ray and Carolyn speaking in tongues.

“He would avoid the longer wait for recovery” she rationalized.
“ If its necessary, let s get it done”, Ray added.
“Wait, wait a goddamn minute!” I thought.
I could not stand their stoicism.

Peering over the edge,
Recognizing that the diabolically sponsored infection
Was insidious and relentless,
Carolyn and Ray, those infuriating rationalists,
Are keepers of the word.