After the Doctor’s Call
by Joan Mazza
After the Doctor’s Call
She’s got the words stuck in her head,
another song you can’t turn off, worse than
It’s a small world after all.
It’s a word string with a beat:
metastatic pancreatic cancer.
The tune plays over and over, written
today for her father. It’s like that childhood
jingle on black and white TV.
You’ll wonder where the yellow went
when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.
Finally sleep. She dreams of a meat counter
in an organic market where they sell exactly
what she wishes, human organs clean and fresh,
packaged with their kind: liver, pancreas, lung.
She loads her cart with every type,
assured they will fit and match, no fight,
and aims to pay the bill no matter
what the cost, but her wallet’s lost.
She cries out, wakes to a room still dark,
to sort sweet dreams from hard news.
Marilyn Hallett reads “After the Doctor’s Call” on behalf of Joan Mazza:
Joan Mazza worked as a medical microbiologist, psychotherapist, and taught workshops nationally on understanding dreams and nightmares. She is the author of six books, including Dreaming Your Real Self (Penguin/Putnam), and her work has appeared in Italian Americana, The Comstock Review, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, Slant, and The Nation. She lives in rural central Virginia, and has over 650 published poems.