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AD LIBITUM

The Fall

George Young, MD

15 January 1998 | Volume 128 Issue 2 | Page 95

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Lie still, bird
with a broken wing.
Stop shivering
under the snow of your winter,
this clean white sheet.
Your hollow
bones are better for flying
than tottering down
the lonely halls of a nursing home
in ragged
bathrobe and slippers ...
where you fell.
Now
there's a magenta bruise
in your side,
and the little blue rivers
in the glass-like skin of your temple
have spilled blood
in the white feathers of your hair.
The nurse will bring
some morphine for your pain.
And tomorrow
the orthopedic surgeon
will fix your hip with a pin.
You won't fly.
But you'll walk again.

Author and Article Information

Top Author & Article Info

Boulder, CO 80304
Requests for Reprints: George Young, MD, 2315 Hawthorn Avenue, Boulder, CO 80304.

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