James Walton #18 Near Death (Experienced Applicants Only) Please Address the Selection Criteria

Near Death (Experienced Applicants Only)

Please Address the Selection Criteria

Have you used Viagra in the past 24 hours

the paramedic asks slightly embarrassed

I answer No but is there a box

for I wish I had a reason to you can tick

while something won’t dissolve

under my tongue if death comes here

more than an hour to the nearest hospital

strapped down how foreign the paisley gums

out the back in the mist are every bump

on the logger’s track a cry from

a pulping tree I have no risk factors

the driver’s losing traction stopping

for another reading but it’s all good

then just take this in case anyway

everyone in the emergency department

is pregnant except for Andrew

I answer the same questions every time

they take blood and a reading and x ray

he tells me in Vietnam his uncle

gave him a smoke when he was four

I ask for his uncle’s number for a word

our joke of me dealing with a bad relative

chuckles around Mario who’s a gondolier

with a speedy trolley strokes a poleless skill

between the traffic of cubicles as he lands

me back with Paula and Nina who pull

the patches off we laugh about my flokati

chest never looking the same again

Dr Van tells me I’ve got a real good heart

there waiting for the all clear all I can think about

is the birth of my children how love tastes

like the bubbles in honeycomb and will my hand

ever slowly take a cast of your hip again