Posted by Atticus on August 22, 2004, at 8:58:26
Chocolate Milk
I stare down
At the cellophane-wrapped
Package
Containing
A white plastic
Knife
And
Fork
And
Spoon
Sitting next
To my place setting
In disbelief,
Musing,
I thought
I saw the last
Of these bast**ds
Back in the ward
Two days ago.“Is this a joke?”
I ask my sister,
As she sets out
Steaming plates
Of roast chicken,
Rice,
And string beans
For my mother,
Me,
And my 6-year-old
Nephew, Christopher.
Julie shoots me
A look,
Then moves her gaze
Down
To my left forearm,
Which is swaddled
In an Ace bandage
To conceal
The three jagged
Red scars,
Still bearing bits
Of scab
In places,
That run
Along the veins
Stretching
From my wrist
Halfway
To the crook
Of my elbow.
And I guess
This
Is to be expected
From someone
So used
To child-proofing
Her home.I slowly
Pick up
The wrapper
And tear it open.
“I got a real one,”
Crows Christopher,
Proudly holding
His metal fork
Aloft
And waving it
In my face.
“You got plastic
So you won’t
Hurt yourself eating
Again,” he explains,
With such a serious
Expression
On his face
That I can’t help
But smile.
“Yeah,” I say,
“I guess I’m just
More clumsy than you.”
His brow creases
As he admonishes,
“You got to be
More careful.”
I nod
In agreement,
Then set to
Cutting my meat.And I’m remembering
That scene in “The Graduate”
Where Mr. McGuire
Tells Dustin Hoffman’s
Character, Ben,
That the wave
Of the future
Is
“Plastics.”
I ponder
Just how prophetic
That line
From a script
Has turned out
To be
For me.The table
Begins to vibrate
Slightly
As I attempt
To put a dent
In my piece
Of chicken,
Sawing away
Vigorously
But futilely
Until the
Stitched-up
Tendons
In my left
Wrist begin
To throb
And I have
To stop
And momentarily
Clutch it.“I’ll get that, honey,”
My mom says,
Pulling my plate
Next to hers
And dicing up
The chicken for me
Like she did
When I
Was Christopher’s age.
It’s all
So humiliating
That I want
To scream,
But they mean well
So I decide
To just get
With the program,
And ask my sister
If I can have
Some chocolate milk
-- Atticus
poster:Atticus
thread:380764
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/write/20040729/msgs/380764.html