Repository 21-22 (2)

Herewith, the latest selection from dusted-off published poetry and short fiction, circa 1970s vintage and beyond....

Eugenics

So many times
we passed that place
knowing it was there
not really caring
then

in young manhood
you draped your bones
on the pristine sheet
of the cagesided bed
and we hovered
in angished disbelief

saw through a mist
a lifeline pierce
your transparent wrist
and
the steady drip
transfixed us

this was reality.

Gently the doctor probed
your beloved frame
our foggy memories
for family history
and we waited release
from the dreadful error.

Now every day
life sustaining injections
balance your present
consolidate your future. Now
every day we note
your altered need
vital dependence

daily we tread
a quicksand
in shades of fear and hope
reading you
like a barometer.

c. 1977 Rita Rosenfeld
published by Repository Press, winter-spring 1977