Only a yard or two and a barrier
of extra-strength window glass
separated me from them
as I managed the obligatory
post-surgery stretch down the hall—
the diseased organ ripped
from my body just hours before.
They were two elderly men
on a low corner of hospital roof,
hunched beneath overcast sky,
taking a smoke between courses.
We revile them. Winged warlocks,
we call them, these other-world scavengers.
Yet we revere them. They sense
the nearness of death long before
the white coats do.
—Tryst, issue X-XI, 2004
Not the right thing to see after surgery? It wasn't the painkillers, really.
Just got back home after a short stay in the city, where I had a somewhat-dreaded medical procedure involving anesthesia. I typically try to stay away from medical establishments, however.