11 May 2019

11 May 2019

She returns from the doctor

and finds me sitting in the garden room

shaded by Little Cherry Twist

and Japanese Maple.

She sits opposite me

on the white bamboo chair

with yellow cushions.

My wife and I share the

same physician. "He

gave me an A+," she says.

Her silver hair comes down

both sides of her face

as she smiles. "He said

my numbers are great."

The doctor never gives me reports

like this. He tells me

to control myself before he

has to do it for me.

She's a village elder.

She carries medicine to and from

ancestors and children.

He always give her

inflated reports like these.

What else can he do,

seated before one like her?

Jim Bodeen

11 May 2019