Touch: The Journal of Healing
Copyright © 2013
Touch: The Journal of Healing
All rights reserved.
Days
by Ed Bennett
She is having a bad day.
The pain bears down on shoulders and hips
with vise teeth closing relentlessly
like a medieval rack in
the hands of a determined gaoler.
She says nothing, listening to a love song,
that Puccini aria we both admire,
her mind dredging for days spent
in the quiet cloister of our embrace,
days of touch without pain.
Days taken, for the most part,
by the clench of rheumatoid arthritis
dulled by oxycodone.
Days of silence, save for the aria, filling
the room with the mercy of a soft note.
Days of sun lit afternoons
when I took her hard in my embrace,
swinging her until her feet left the floor,
her head thrown back in laughter,
loving me in the tactile way of immortal youth.
Now, I hold her hand gingerly,
aware of her wince to hide the pain
hoping for the blessing of
a day’s remission from the hell
of angry joints and synovial rebellion.
She wonders aloud for my wellbeing,
a glancing mention of decreased intimacy,
as if my humanity was based in maleness
or my love would founder
on a sea of self denial.
I’ll let Puccini set this mood,
join her on the couch,
showing that love doesn’t die – it changes
to answer the question of where we journey
as the twilight darkens, the shadows fall.
© 2013 Ed Bennett
Ed Bennett is a poet and critic living in Las Vegas, NV. His works have appeared in The Externalist, Touch: The Journal of Healing, The Lavender Review, Quill and Parchment and Lilipo. He is a staff editor for Quill and Parchment Magazine, the recipient of a Pushcart Nomination and the author of “A Transit of Venus”.