Poem: Stroke

           Stroke

I walk away from dad's bed.

Mr. Dugan, his roommate, gestures to me:

                 "Say, give me a hand here.

                  Help me get my truck started."

             Embarrassed, I say,

                 "I'll get the nurse."

             Mr. Dugan asks Jane to help. She says,

                 "Mr. Dugan,

                  you're in a hospital bed."

             Later, at work, I tell Brian. He says:

                  "You shoulda helped him

                   get his goddamned truck started!"

             Brian's right.

             Stuck in a snowbank

             outside South Bend

             with a dead truck engine

             is a good place to be

Don Pelton, 10/11/91