Published on: 3/10/2010
Sick Day

The school nurse was primitive
in some indefinable way.
Primordial, before god had a chance to breathe tact,
a proper sense of distance from others,
or life into vacant eyes
that could only reflect the basest needs.
she lacked a deity's imprimatur
or even someone playing at the supernatural.
Later, when
Even reading could become too strenuous,
he would float off into the video worlds,
that he had not created, watch lives come and go,
complete arcs, mini-retreats,
of ninety to one hundred twenty minutes.
Even the ebb and mostly flow of the sickness,
felt rejuvenating.
Imagined self as larvae, even pupae,
tadpoles growing a lung,
hermit crabs checking out of a gastropod
and returning to carapace life,
a snake evening out its javelin stuffed belly.
Sickness was transformation.