11-06-2019, 11:22 AM
She is a hypochondriac,
self-aware and wary of self,
with chronic pain
and stubborn pride.
She refuses to see a doctor.
“It would so embarrassing
to be wrong,” she says.
(I think it would be worse to be right.)
It isn’t so much the heart attack this week,
or last week’s bout of Parkinson’s
when her hand was shaking just like Gramps,
or the kidney stone that never was,
but rather, I think it’s the fear
that someday it will be true
and she would never know the difference.
self-aware and wary of self,
with chronic pain
and stubborn pride.
She refuses to see a doctor.
“It would so embarrassing
to be wrong,” she says.
(I think it would be worse to be right.)
It isn’t so much the heart attack this week,
or last week’s bout of Parkinson’s
when her hand was shaking just like Gramps,
or the kidney stone that never was,
but rather, I think it’s the fear
that someday it will be true
and she would never know the difference.
The Soufflé isn’t the soufflé; the soufflé is the recipe. --Clara