BEING A NURSE

when they burst in on him
he jumped out the window
the mob caught him
and left him dazed and bleeding
naked in the street
in the hospital
the night shift heard
there were death threats
and pushed furniture
against the back door
of the nursing unit
in the morning
one of the two policemen
takes off his kevlar vest
my patient is impassive
and silent
I rub lotion on his back
and put vaseline
on his puffy lips
he says thank you
out at the station
they say
oh that one's yours
how could someone do that
to a five-year-old girl

THE ALBANIAN LANGUAGE HAS LOST 100% 0F ITS ORIGINAL VOCABULARY

Which is more me

the lemon drop melting in my mouth
or the spit drying on my finger?

a mangled, still-warm severed thumb
or a well-formed stool in my sigmoid colon?

my forgotten ideas about the syntax of "The Blue Juniata"
or the unconscious grammar common to us all?

Which is more me

I, lying blankly here,
or this yellowed paper in your hand?

MERCY SAVETH

                                                                       in modern English:


Mercy is hendest                                            Mercy is most ready
Where sinne is mest.                                      Where sin is most.
Mercy is latere                                               Mercy is slower
There sinne is lest.                                         Where sin is least.
Mercy abideth                                                Mercy abides
And looketh al day                                        And looks all day
When man fro sinne                                      [For] when man from sin
Will turnen away.                                          Will turn away.
Mercy saveth                                                  Mercy saves
That lawe wolde spille.                                  What law would destroy.
Mercy asketh                                                  Mercy asks
But Godes wille.                                            But God's will.
   --Anonymous

This little poem has gone through my mind often ever since I first came across it abt thirty yrs ago.  I've written it down from memory, so it may not be correct in every jot and/or tittle.  And of course, my interpretation of "sinne" and "Godes wille" is not the most orthodox.

INDRA'S NET

Each the deep red jewel of the world
and its irredeemable flaw,
the nullity of their union
and the flickering back and forth.

The wind scrapes
a dry leaf across the walk.

Our one dog stretches
and m-lessly moos.

PLENTY OF NOTHING

that the sky's not torn
by the blackbird cutting across

that the embolus paces exactly
the absence in the blood

THOROUGHLY MADE

and stained just so,
your pale blue shirt.