poetic therapy – JUST JOAN 42

I GAVE AT THE OFFICE

April 10, 2022April 9, 2022Just Joan12 Comments

They say you’ve “gotta pay your dues to sing the blues” and I’ve paid those dues—with sixteen years of calling senior citizens from my desk in Internal Medicine. This poetry form, the BLUES STANZA, might be the most formidable challenge in your Poetry Challenge, Muri. The rules are blurry and the end product seems like it ought to be crooned rather than read, accompanied by the world’s saddest harmonica. But once I got started, it all just came pouring out. I tossed an extra rhyme in each mirror line, just for kicks. To family and friends who wondered why I never answered my home phone, I hope this explains it.

SINGIN’ THE OFFICE NURSE BLUES

I take call after call after call… as an office nurse
Gotta be calm and professional… as an office nurse
I keep a big bottle of Excedrin… in my purse

My snowbird patients are gone… in Florida until spring
No cell phone to reach ‘em on… down in Florida until spring
Their voicemail is full… their home phones ring and ring

Some patients live alone… and want to jabber on all day
Don’t wanna hang up the phone… just jabber on all day
Tell me their socks don’t match… and the mailman’s late

Book the next guy to see the doc… for results of his MRI
Poor guy’s in for a shock… looks like bad news on his MRI
Guess he’ll find out on Tuesday… if he’s gonna live or die

Lady calls, says she’s only got two… of her little pink pills
Needs her prescription renewed… for those little pink pills
She don’t know what they’re called… but she’s hopin’ I will

When I return from lunch… it’s overdue mammogram calls
Got me a whopping bunch… of overdue mammogram calls
By three, I’ll be floatin’ in excuses… up to my eyeballs

My ears and brain ache… after a long day on the phone
Had about all I can take… a long, long day on the phone
Gonna shut my ringer off… the minute I get home

EATING AN ELEPHANT

January 17, 2021January 17, 2021Just Joan17 Comments

It’s natural to feel hopeless when you are surrounded by inequality, political corruption and unrest, and economic uncertainty, not to mention slow-but-sure destruction of the planet from pollution and global warming. A fav self-help book offers this advice: “Don’t let all the things you can’t do stop you from doing the things you can do.”

Recycling is one small thing I can do, but commercial recyclers tend to be picky about what they will take (#1 and #2 plastics that are bottle-shaped). Reusable shopping bags were my go-to until COVID-19 hit. Many stores don’t offer paper, and I end up with more throwaway plastic bags than I could ever reuse. In response to push-back from environmentalists, some chains have initiated take-backs. The Kroger near us expanded their program to include all sorts of flimsy plastics. Clean, dry items can be dropped in a dedicated container in their lobby to be recycled into composite decking and lumber. It took time to train myself to check their list and not just toss bags and wraps and packing materials willy-nilly into the trash. I saved up my plastics for six months before I dropped them off, and I was astounded to discover that my cache filled three 39-gallon lawn and leaf bags! Yikes!

PLASTICS THEY’LL TAKE
(sing to the tune of My Favorite Things)

Bags from my shopping and bread and dry cleaning
Bags made for boiling and microwave steaming
Liners from Cheerios and Frosted Flakes
These are some plastics reclaimers will take

Overwrap binding those by-the-case bargains
Ice Mountain water and Bounty and Charmin
Wraps on cheese singles, between minute-steaks
These are some plastics reclaimers will take

Air-pillow packing and bubble-wrap mailers
Ziplocs and food wrap and sleeves from newspapers
Film from Hot pockets and Hostess cupcakes
These are some plastics reclaimers will take

Now that I know,
it will all go
to the Kroger store
to be hauled away,
then compressed and remade
into plastic 2 x 4’s

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JUST BOPPIN’ ALONG

June 27, 2020June 27, 2020Just Joan14 Comments

Last week, my friend Muri introduced me to a poetry form called The Bop. A Bop consists of three mono-rhymed stanzas. Each is followed by a single-line refrain. The first stanza is six lines and presents a problem. The second stanza is eight lines and expands on the problem. The third stanza is six lines and documents the resolution (or failed attempt/s at resolution).

That said, The Bop is an ideal form to address daily life in 2020. There are huge problems all around us. But it’s the pesky little problems that seem to demand most of our attention—dead batteries, overdue books, mosquito bites, etc. When COVID-19 became a threat, I made it a habit to flush, then wash my hands until the toilet stops running, which takes about 20 seconds. This approach works well as long as the flapper valve closes properly. I dread when it doesn’t because I might have to put my hand into the tank. And even if I don’t, I’ll have to touch something that warrants another 20 seconds of handwashing.

COMMODIUS BOP

I wipe my mucky tush,
toss paper in and flush,
and hear the water rush,
a robust cleansing gush
Down goes all the mush
but trickling, unhushed

whooshes in my ears

I wait a minute more
Quit running, I implore
A hit-the-flush encore
is weaker than before
and still the filler roars
Jig-jiggles are ignored
A loud and clear call for
internal maneuvers

whooshes in my ears

Let the games begin!
With clank of porcelain,
lid lifted, hand plunged in
dodging chains and pins
reseats valve seal again
A sweet but fleeting win

whooshes in my ears

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BUBBLE, BUBBLE, TOIL & TROUBLE

April 3, 2020April 3, 2020Just Joan10 Comments

In response to MURI’S 2020 CHALLENGE FOR NATIONAL POETRY MONTH. Like the 2019 challenge, this consists of 13 prompts, one for each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in April. They can be completed in any order. If you are interested in participating, click on the above link for the prompts and posting guidelines.

Prompt #2 is “Use the following words in a poem – willow, bird, tea.” On my mind as I wrote my response was an article from last week’s New York Times wherein a nurse complained that the hospital she worked at was out of everything. Not just ventilators and masks and gloves, but vital medications. No sedatives for patients on ventilators. No Tylenol for patients with fevers. If hospitals cannot get their hands on Tylenol, what hope is there for the rest of us? I pulled out a book I bought long ago, an encyclopedia of alternative medicine. Mostly simple, common sense remedies—clove to soothe a toothache, ginger to calm an upset stomach, menthol and camphor to loosen chest congestion, honey and lemon to quiet a cough. Roll your eyes if you want, but home remedies might be worth a shot when you’re suffering and there are no over-the-counter meds to be had. Now’s the time to befriend that odd neighbor who knows about stuff like feverfew and St John’s wort.

AMATEUR HERBALIST

Our neighbor, a strange bird is she
grinding bark from a white willow tree
with mortar and pestle
then boiling the kettle
to brew some homemade “headache tea”

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THEY REAL UN-COOL

March 29, 2020March 28, 2020Just Joan19 Comments

Gwendolyn Brooks classic We Real Cool has been sitting in my “to be parodied” file for ages. I love the cleverness of her poem–the clipped rhymes, the unusual line breaks, the repetition of the pronoun–but it defies satirization. Is that even a word? At last, a reasonable facsimile has coalesced. The “they” falls off the map at the end, but somehow,
it seems fitting… poetically just. Initially, I was drawn to this colorful COVID-19 map. Looking at it today, however, I feel compelled to do a thorough Tupperware check before I put out the trash.

STABLE GENIUS & CO

They real tools. They
damn fools. They

cried hoax. They
duped folks. They

ignored docs. They
spread pox. Now

too late. Up
to Fate.

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RETURNING TO YOURSELF

July 7, 2019July 7, 2019Just Joan12 Comments

I fell in love with this meme the minute I saw it on FaceBook.
Psychology-turned-poetry. For all those who are seeking:

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AU CONTRAIRE, L’ DOCTEUR!

June 30, 2019June 29, 2019Just Joan17 Comments

“Sweets are gonna kill you,” my doctor is fond of saying. Thanks to my friend Darlene, I will go to my next appointment armed with proof to the contrary. Darlene and her husband had enlisted their son’s help to move stuff from their old house to their new one. The son stopped on the way over and impulse-bought a fresh strawberry pie, the berries swimming in sugary red goo, smothered beneath a blanket of whipped cream. They trucked load after load to the new house. It was late, but Darlene wanted to go back and stay the night; she had to meet with a potential buyer early the next morning. Her son talked her out of it by tempting her with the pie, which looked too yummy to resist. Midway through dessert, their cell phones began buzzing with warnings from the National Weather Service. Had it not been for that strawberry pie, Darlene would have been caught in the eye of the storm.

OWED TO STRAWBERRY PIE
(diminished hexaverse)

They had spent all day
moving heavy loads
from old house to new.
She wanted to go back
but her son stopped her.

“What about the
strawberry pie?”
he said. “Let’s sit
and have a piece.”

While they ate
and talked, a
tornado

flattened
their old

house.

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TALKING TO STRANGERS

June 16, 2019June 16, 2019Just Joan29 Comments

Last month, I decided I’d take the bus to Erie, PA to visit my sister. When I shared this plan with my husband and sister, both offered to ferry me there and back rather than allow me to throw myself to the ‘Hounds. I shushed them and bought a ticket, determined to have an adventure. C’mon, how bad could it be? For a very reasonable price, they do all the driving, and you get a comfy seat, a generous baggage allowance, an electrical outlet, complimentary WiFi, and a restroom.
I had tight connections to make in both Columbus and Cleveland, so things got off to a rocky start when the bus failed to show up at the designated pick-up point in Springfield. The Greyhound rep checked the online tracker. The bus was running late. Like, over an hour late. Hubby drove me to Columbus, I made my connection, and everything went smoothly from there. On some legs, the bus was less than half full and every rider got a row to him or herself. On the more crowded legs, I was quick to offer up the empty seat beside me. Most people kept to themselves; they read novels, listened to music, or texted on their cell phones. The nap-takers came prepared with C-shaped neck pillows and eye masks. Others were eager to strike up a conversation. If my seatmate wanted to chat, I obliged. These dialogues were eye-opening. Humans are complex beings, not always what they seem:

PEOPLE OF GREYHOUND

The bus driver arrives carrying a coffee
in each hand and fills us in on the rules.
“Be considerate of others around you.
No loud music or yakking on the phone.
Hold onto the overhead safety ropes
on your way to and from the restroom.
Weapons and smoking are prohibited.
Sit when you pee. And there’s no maid
onboard, so pick up after yourselves.”

My first seatmate is a clean-cut dude
carrying nothing but a brown paper sack.
He’s 35 with kids by three “baby mamas.”
After he got out of “the joint,”
he started reading. All those new ideas
“shifted his paradigm” and changed his life.
He channels Maya Angelou saying,
“When you know better, you gotta do better.”
Young black ex-cons can surprise you.

In line in Cleveland, a chocolate Adonis
with shined shoes and a swank iPhone says
he’s heading back to rehab after a day pass.
“Think that vending machine takes fives?”
“Probably,” I reply.
He returns holding a bottle of lemonade
and I ask how much they ganked him for.
He snorts. “Did you just say ganked?”
Old white ladies can surprise you, too.

My next seatmate is a pasty redhead
in faded Levis with more holes than denim.
She’ll be riding all night to get to Nashville.
She opens her shiny copper-colored handbag,
withdraws a can of Pringles,
and allows herself one diminutive handful.
I envy her restraint.
When she nods off, her head slumps forward
like a flower on a broken stem.

Within earshot, jagged snores saw through
the feather-light laughter of a guy sporting
Elton John sunglasses and bedazzled jeans.
A Barbie doll-shaped brunette is on her way
to an exam that will determine her worthiness
for a slot in a speech pathology program.
A plain-clothes nun silently prays the rosary.
An afroed teenager bobs his head in time
to the pumping bass overspilling his earbuds.

On the final leg, I meet a dark foreigner
with a gold front tooth and wicked breath.
I offer him a box of wintergreen TicTacs.
He accepts them with a gracious “Merci.”
He asks if I have children. When I say no,
he nods gravely and replies, “God’s will.”
He teaches me a few French basics:
Bonjour. Comment vas-tu? Bien, merci.
“Au revoir, ami,” he grins when we part.

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