Untitled Poem

Appearing in a dream

A familiar presence

And more than you seem

Wanting me near

I cannot deny

I’ve nothing to fear

Embracing your soul

Sharing the warmth

Making us whole

© May 2018

Duane Windell Phillips

Shorties: Number 58

During the drive, they avoided the elephant.  Paco was the reason for driving to the hospital.  Still, Ashley and Melinda, Paco’s first and second grade teachers respectively, didn’t want their feelings to get the best of them.  The youngest child from a family of immigrants, Paco timidly entered Ashley’s classroom for the first time last year.  He knew no English.  Ashley couldn’t comprehend how she could teach a child who didn’t share her language.  Little did she realize the intelligence and desire to learn housed in Paco’s small frame.

Melinda acknowledged the elephant first.  Choking back tears, Melinda stated, “He’s the smartest, sweetest little boy I’ve ever had in my classroom.”

“Me too.  It seems like he learned English in a week and then he was helping his friends with math.  He was the best behaved one in my class.”

“So many kids now are spoiled brats who need sound discipline.”

“You got that right.”

Then both thought it.  Only Melinda was brave enough to say it.  “It isn’t fair an eight year old gets cancer.  Especially Paco.  I don’t wish this on anyone but why him?  Why such a cute, sweet, smart little boy?”

Ashley sighed.  The question rocked her foundations.  She replied with the only words she knew at that moment, “I don’t know.”

With the car parked, the ladies retrieved balloons and toys from the car and started walking toward the hospital.  That morning, Paco had surgery to remove a kidney.  Doctors also removed a tumor the size of a newborn baby.  The incision was from his waist to the ribcage.  When the school staff was shown the post op photograph, astonished gasps filled the air.  How does a little boy endure such butchery?  It wasn’t that the doctors were poorly skilled.  Rather, the scar was grotesquely large across his tiny body. 

The elevator door opened and the teachers looked at the sign to reference the direction they needed to walk.  Toward the end of the hallway, they saw Paco’s older sister, Mariela.  She ran to the teachers and hugged them.  Fighting tears, she asked, “What are you doing here?”

Melinda replied with a smile, “We’re here to see Paco.”

The trio walked to the room and Paco’s mother,Lourdes, recognized the teachers and left her son’s side to approach them.  She said, “Thank you for come.  He sleeps still.”

Ashley said, “We had to see him.  How is he?”

“He wake but sleep again.”  Then she spoke to Mariela in Spanish.  Mariela said, “They removed his kidney and a large tumor.  They will inspect the tumor and let us know as soon as possible.”

Lourdes introduced the teachers to her husband and her parents.  Just then, Paco stirred and all attention was focused on him.  Lourdes held his hand saying, “Papito, papi, estoy aqui.  Tiene dolor?  Papi?  Paco, puedes escucharme?”

Paco didn’t open his eyes but started to cry softly.  “It hurts mommy.”

Tears fell down Lourdes’s cheeks as tears welled up in the eyes of his teachers.  Paco’s father and grandfather stood by stoically.  They were resolute against any weakness but were obviously broken.  The next hour was difficult for the teachers as Paco faded in and out of consciousness.  They wanted to talk with the lad and the family but conversations were difficult.  The parents spoke only basic English with Paco’s siblings serving as translators.  They had been in the hospital all day and, while concerned for their brother, were bored with the drudgery of sitting and talking. 

Once Paco was fully aware of his surroundings, he smiled at his teachers and thanked them for visiting him.  He also expressed appreciation for the balloons and presents.  Doctors and nurses entered, checked the lad and the incision, and advised the surgery went well.  There was a private discussion with the parents and a hospital translator. 

Finally, it was time to Ashley and Melinda to depart.  They each hugged the boy and kissed him on the forehead.  He thanked them again for visiting.  He added, “You’re my favorite teachers.” 

The rest of the week they found themselves hating the circumstances.  They loathed the unfairness of it all.  More than anything, Ashly and Melinda abhorred not knowing how it would end. 

Unknown Light

Ignored, forgotten, and mostly unknown

A hopeful sunlight goes on

Until the day it cannot resist

Precipitously its gone

© April 2018

DWP

To Live a Life

To live a life mired in tar

The only light is from afar

Always seeking who you are

Forever bearing the crimson scar

© April 2018

DWP

Phones Now and Then

I was on my way to work this morning when I realized I forgot my cell phone.  I feel so naked.  It hasn’t always been this way. 

Nowadays, cell phones are ubiquitous.  That hasn’t always been the case.  I grew up in the era when phones were attached to a wall in the living room or kitchen or sat on a small table.  Most homes in my town had but one phone.  There was a cord that limited your movement.  In my house, you had to stand during your conversation.  If you were having a long conversation, you may pause a moment and move a chair closer in order to sit.  It was a happy day when dad bought an extension cord that allowed us to sit in the chair or couch in the living room. 

Speed dial?  That depended on how quickly you could spin your finger around the dial when placing a call.  You hoped the number you called had low numbers.  7, 8, 9 and 0 took forever when you were in a hurry.  There was no redial on our rotary phone.  There was a dial and you were the redialer.  Why would you redial?  No one answered or you got a busy signal.  There was a time if you called someone who was on the phone, you heard a beeping tone which indicated the other line was off the hook.  Yes, off the hook actually meant the part of the phone you held to your head wasn’t resting on the mechanism that allowed inbound calls.

Call waiting started when I was in high school, but few had it.  It cost extra and most considered it a luxury that wasn’t need.  That was like having a microwave.  (I’ll have to write some time about my mom getting her first microwave.)  Speaking of costs, only local calls were free.  You paid by the minute for long distance calls.  Therefore, calls to family, who lived in Michigan, were limited to special occasions and emergencies. 

I remember the first time I had to call someone.  I don’t recall who it was or the reason for but I was quite nervous.  I was, perhaps, 6 or 7 years old.  Excitement filled me when the call was complete.  I also remember Community Bank in Canton had a phone number to get the time and temperature.  I would call that number multiple times to hear the temps go up during the day. 

It was a few years into my working life when cell phones first came out.  They were much bigger then.  They reminded me of some radios soldiers used in the Vietnam conflict.  I had a coworker who had a “car phone.”  The voice mail on his car phone said something like “I’m not out right now.  I’m in.  Leave a message.” 

Still, it was many more years before I actually used a cell phone.  I had a job at a hotel that housed airlines crews during layovers.  I was driving a crew to the airport when the hotel called me.  I had to ask one of the flight crew members to answer it for me.  I didn’t know how to answer it. 

Times have changed they continue to accelerate.  Looking back, I feel like I am an archaic man talking about horse and buggy days.  I will survive this day without my phone.  Not having my phone gives me time to write. 

Shorties: Number 57

A level above, I saw her, with the wind pulling her dress.  Narrow and to her ankles, the thin fabric drawn across her lithe frame, she was the silhouette of a goddess.  Delight illuminated her countenance.  I was captured, captivated.  Surely, Aphrodite paled in comparison. 

With uplifted hand, she pointed across the harbor and her ladies in waiting followed the gesture as they fawned over and about her.  Recognition and acknowledgement proffered excitement prompting me to glimpse the scene of her illumination.  Magnificent structures and sea fowl of every kind filled the horizon.  I returned my eyes to this heavenly creature.  Her gaze fell to me and our eyes locked in recognition of another soul. 

My heart jumped.  Like the gusts tugging her garment, I longed to, likewise, rush to her.  Oh that I could wrap my arms around her in warmth.  To give her delight, love.  Then her tresses fell, obscuring her vision and interrupting the spell cast upon me.  Still in awe, I observed her turn of head and delicate fingers pulling the locks behind her ear.  There she remained, looking about the harbor.  Alas, obligations called me onward. 

Her visage remains seared upon my memory.  She stood, gazing about with gusts pulling the dress across her form, revealing the curve of her hips and breasts.  She was regal and altogether lovely.  Surely, she was fearfully and wonderfully made.