NAPOWRIMO #13

Read Write Poem NaPoWriMo Prompt #13 - Smoke a Dubie

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POEM STARTING with a LINE from NORMAN DUBIE
(GRANDMA)

You wondered about skin
wrinkled by looking at jewels.

You drank glass after glass of whiskey,
chasing it with cheap beer as the night aged.

You telephoned in the middle of the night,
drunk dialing, hoping to speak with your daughter.

You asked me to buy you unfiltered Pall Mall cigarettes,
and bring them to your hospital room.

You peppered me with gifts from mail order catalogs,
trinkets and throwaways of a plastic knick-knack culture.

You declared that they stole my liquor,
but they will never get my smokes! while I nodded in assent.

You sang to me and we wandered the hallways of the cancer ward,
our rectums bleeding, leaving a trail of painted carpet in our wake.

You spoke of your beloved eagles and cardinals
and tiny songbirds as though they were the very angels of heaven.

You laughed a warbled throaty laugh,
wet on wet and then some.

You did nothing other than breathe,
trying so hard to put puffs of air together like puzzle pieces.

I held your hands, the skin soft like baby hands,
warmth slowly dripping out through the drain tube of hours.