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A Present Annoyance
By: Dennis Bates
I coughed in her ear.
That’s all! I coughed in her ear.
Is that a sin in any religion?
Did I come home late
Smelling of another? No.
Did I forget our anniversary,
her birthday, our first date?
No. I coughed in her ear.
We were lying next to each other
and I coughed; an accident,
I didn’t do it on purpose
or out of spite
I coughed, and her ear
was there.
Had we been pressing
each other’s warm flesh
it might not have happened,
but we don’t press each
other as much anymore.
Too old,
too tired,
too full,
too fat.
Too,
not two.
I coughed in her ear
And I haven’t heard
anything from her since.
It was only a cough
and I didn’t try to,
but somehow
it dioesn’t matter.
In the twilight kingdom
under the fading star
lips that would kiss
form only a broken jaw
and avoid speech
somewhere where Eliot’s shape
has no form
and shade has no color,
where all we do
is grope together with a whimper
somewhere between
the motion and the reality.
And all because
I coughed in her ear.
And so it will be.
But does it have to?
In the larger scheme,
and I believe there is one,
isn’t a harmless cough
something to be ignored
or at least forgiven?
In youth it would have been
so that the joy of being close,
the warmth,
the breathless excitement,
the soft love of
a sweet sensual touch
of flesh and soul
could be enjoyed
and magnified.
All of it.
But those things got replaced
because of familiar repetition
that we chose to view
as an annoyance
rather than something
to be cherished
like it used to be.
Too soon there is no cough
and only the creaky silence
of abject loneliness prevails,
and it doesn’t cough.
It just sits and stares
like a cat with no purr,
a barkless dog,
a bird with no song, or
a sullen child
not allowed to speak
because it is better
to be seen.
Then the only screams
in the night are your own,
and there is no one
to hold you when you are
shaking,
comfort you when you are
terrified,
or turn on a light when
dreams of darkness
descend.
It may not be much,
but at least I coughed,
not because I sought to annoy,
but to be near while
I still can.
Wouldn’t it be loverly?
By: Dennis Bates One of my favorite lines from the play “My Fair Lady” comes from the slightly pompous and very proper Professor Henry Higgins when he rails about how different nationalities speak. When he gets to the French, he has this to say: “The French never care what they do, actually, as…
An Olympic Sidenote
By: Dennis Bates The Olympics: two weeks of sleep deprivation that comes once every four years. In some ways we can be happy it doesn’t come more often for just that reason. In spite of my personal pledge to ignore the spectacle this time, I find myself glued to the coverage every night…
What’s in a name?
By: Dennis Bates One of my favorite Gaither songs begins “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there’s just something about that name.” That’s so true. Names are important. Think about your own name for a minute. It almost defines you. If you ask somebody who they are, more times than not they will respond by…
Roadside Fruit Stands
By: Dennis Bates Do you remember the days when you could buy local produce along the side of the road? Maybe in your part of the country you still can, but in Iowa, where I live, you see roadside stands less and less. You can still find pictures of Elvis on black velvet…
A grammar lesson, or is it usage?
By: Dennis Bates I am one of those people who studied English grammar, diagrammed sentences, memorized the definitions of the parts of speech and actually liked it. Hey, some people like being a dentist too, so don’t run away. I have to admit that I have forgotten a lot over the years,…
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