Surgical Ward: Men
Something occurred after the operation
To scare the surgeons (though no fault of theirs),
Whose reassurance did not fool me long.
Beyond the shy, concerned faces of nurses
A single white hot eye, focusing on me,
Forced sweat in rivers down from scalp to belly.
I whistled, gasped, or sang, with whitening knuckles
Clutched at my bed grip almost till it cracked:
Too proud, still, to let loose Bedlamite screeches
And bring the charge nurse scuttling down the aisle
With morphia needle leveled. . . .
Lady Morphia —
Her scorpion kiss and dark gyrating dreams —
She in mistrust of whom I dared outdare,
Two minutes longer than seemed possible,
Pain, that unpurposed, matchless elemental
Stronger than fear or grief, stranger than love.
To scare the surgeons (though no fault of theirs),
Whose reassurance did not fool me long.
Beyond the shy, concerned faces of nurses
A single white hot eye, focusing on me,
Forced sweat in rivers down from scalp to belly.
I whistled, gasped, or sang, with whitening knuckles
Clutched at my bed grip almost till it cracked:
Too proud, still, to let loose Bedlamite screeches
And bring the charge nurse scuttling down the aisle
With morphia needle leveled. . . .
Lady Morphia —
Her scorpion kiss and dark gyrating dreams —
She in mistrust of whom I dared outdare,
Two minutes longer than seemed possible,
Pain, that unpurposed, matchless elemental
Stronger than fear or grief, stranger than love.