Wife enters room, but Patient is in
Bad mood—
Limbs so thin they could snap in half
Shit and piss running down legs
Catheter pathetically placed in dick
Tubes and pumps, and tubes and pumps
So many fucking tubes and pumps

Wife feeds Patient,
But Patient rejects food.
Wife begs Patient,
But Patient looks away.
Wife gives up on Patient,
But Patient cares not.
Patient would rather die than face
Shame.

At doorway, Patient sees Daughter,
Taller, bigger, and probably smarter Daughter.
Why did Wife bring Daughter here?
Did Wife desire to Shame Patient?
Did Wife even give a damn about Patient?
Daughter must leave
Do not remember Patient
In this way.

But Daughter does not move, and Wife
Uncovers Patient to clean shit and
Piss. Patient screams dissent—
     Hands off hands off hands off
          Don’t touch don’t touch
               Fuck off

Wife does not listen—never listens, so
Patient shouts and curses and shouts until
Sobbing Daughter runs to embrace Patient:
     Papa, Papa, stop screaming, Papa
         Papa, Papa, I need you, Papa
              Papa, Papa, I love you, Papa
                   Papa, Papa, please.

And the Patient stops struggling.
And his Wife cleans his legs.
And his Daughter hugs him tight.
And he hugs her back too.

Opening a window to give him some air, his
Wife and Daughter leave him with
His thoughts—
His limbs so thin they look like dead twigs
His clean legs that will soon be shit-stained
The catheter pitifully taped to his dick
The tubes and pumps, and tubes and pumps, and
Tubes and pumps, and tubes and—

Stop
So what if he was
The Patient?
He was also the
Family, the brother,
the husband, the father—
That Guy who carried two house keys
Yet always managed to lose both,
That Guy who swallowed a cigarette
Whole to hide it from his Wife,
That Guy who promised to finish his house
Projects but left them unfinished for years.
Patient, too, but that was
Not all he was.

There was no need for Shame when his
Family would gladly take care of him,
Feed him, wipe his shit and piss, and still
Love him.

Looking out into the hall, lying in his bed—
His Wife and Daughter stand in the doorway,
Smiling when they see him and approaching
Gracefully, elegantly, hopefully, and lovingly,
Like twin angels under the light of a new day.