Word Poetry
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Sample Poems by Martha Deborah Hall
My Doctor Rant
Pink cap, blue-white, red one. Woman on Nate with no arms bellows she wants to open up every possibility of what "I can do." Whoopee pie ad on next, then one for Bernie and Phyl's. A landscaping on the wall brings me back to my youth in Madison, Connecticut. A nurse wheels an elderly patient to the front entrance of the hospital where a chauffeur in a black limousine waits to pick her up. Nate displays couch pillows meant for Monica and Tony. They sit at their new yellow coffee table and, for the first time, I notice that Monica is without legs as her prosthesis stick out straight. A Kleenex box sits in the Oncology doctor's office with a Better Homes & Gardens magazine to its left. A blood pressure monitor on wheels is next to a patient's exam table. "This is not a clean area," a nurse says to a patient who wishes to drop off a urine sample. "You must drop it somewhere else." The battery in a scale doesn't work nor the one in the digital thermometer. I'm told my doctor's on a coffee break- will be back in twenty minutes. A well-worn cane with a person enters the waiting room. Finally, I meet with the doctor who tells me she doesn't think I have cancer. I leap from the table, dash home in my car to go sit on my green-striped tender couch. Why the fuck did I have to go there in the first place?
That Season in Hell Cottage for This Oldie
At my funeral, please set the scene,
play "Ave Maria," "I Come to the Garden
Alone," "How Great Thou Art,"
"The Lord's Prayer" and other hymns
of your choice, as
I'm going to die,
I'm going to die,
I'm going to die someday.
Awh, shut up.
Through My Lens
Purple-
gray ice maiden,
my hands reveal what's in
my soul, my lips reveal what's in
my heart.
MoveOn.life
Trunks full
of files and books.
My job ends next week.
I've wasted four years of my life.
Now what?
My Doctor Rant
Pink cap, blue-white, red one. Woman on Nate with no arms bellows she wants to open up every possibility of what "I can do." Whoopee pie ad on next, then one for Bernie and Phyl's. A landscaping on the wall brings me back to my youth in Madison, Connecticut. A nurse wheels an elderly patient to the front entrance of the hospital where a chauffeur in a black limousine waits to pick her up. Nate displays couch pillows meant for Monica and Tony. They sit at their new yellow coffee table and, for the first time, I notice that Monica is without legs as her prosthesis stick out straight. A Kleenex box sits in the Oncology doctor's office with a Better Homes & Gardens magazine to its left. A blood pressure monitor on wheels is next to a patient's exam table. "This is not a clean area," a nurse says to a patient who wishes to drop off a urine sample. "You must drop it somewhere else." The battery in a scale doesn't work nor the one in the digital thermometer. I'm told my doctor's on a coffee break- will be back in twenty minutes. A well-worn cane with a person enters the waiting room. Finally, I meet with the doctor who tells me she doesn't think I have cancer. I leap from the table, dash home in my car to go sit on my green-striped tender couch. Why the fuck did I have to go there in the first place?
That Season in Hell Cottage for This Oldie
At my funeral, please set the scene,
play "Ave Maria," "I Come to the Garden
Alone," "How Great Thou Art,"
"The Lord's Prayer" and other hymns
of your choice, as
I'm going to die,
I'm going to die,
I'm going to die someday.
Awh, shut up.
Through My Lens
Purple-
gray ice maiden,
my hands reveal what's in
my soul, my lips reveal what's in
my heart.
MoveOn.life
Trunks full
of files and books.
My job ends next week.
I've wasted four years of my life.
Now what?