poem

 Op Note XXXI

She kept coming back 

I kept operating on her

Cutting away scar  

Chiseling bowels free 

She said it made her feel better

But only for a while

Then it was back again.  

This time I had nothing left to offer

She needed words 

To heal old trauma

And I exist as a man of action

It’s hard to say no 

When there are things I think I can do 

To make you feel better 

I’ve always experienced stillness

As a form of failure 

If there was nothing to do

How would she ever heal?

But I’m bereft of ideas now

I’ve run out of tools

The only thing I could do

Was to tell her what she felt was real

11/18/22