You are why I pray for a long life

this is why you pray for a long life

god willing

in order to live days like these:

you hold me as I sleep

although the sun is high

and beckons you to other biddings

you stay

and other days of course:

you with your grandiose missives

and I with mine

high and mighty with

purpose - for a time - 

as we stride and strive

towards that which seems

oh so important

and probably is

but more for days like these:

whether you take my hand into waking

with coffee and a poem

or kiss me back to sleep, mercy

you are by my side

god willing

you are why I pray for a long life

Cook County Health and Hospital System

hospital coffee is an atrocity.

a shame really usually

in this strip mall death cult we call home the issue

is not

staying caffeinated the issue

is bodies

how they fail

are replaced

bodies we love bodies

we disdain bodies we

never knew but

insistent in their absence

in hospital I drink in contempt

I wait for a body loved not

yet surrendered

my mind wanders to the river

the turtles returning of late

who will be my substitution?

displaced to the city dirty

dues paid I am

in the replacement

stick to the diet sodas

swap some blood for formaldehyde

the difference between

bodies loved disdained

fades beneath the fluorescents