|
Some Nurses Go Too Far In Room 29
Opposite the nurses station, the room
where a patient recovers
from a major operation to do with thegastro
intestinal tract,
some nurses go too far
and it may be the shock of it,
the mess of it, the smell of essential oils,
industrial sized
deodorant sprays and shit
emptied from the colostomy bag
which coincides
with the anus surgically removed.
Sitting is difficult.
The perineum is excoriated
and the brain is confused by
phantom rectal pain.
Some nurses
go too far and say to the sobbing patient,
'your colostomy is a beautiful rose'
when it looks more
like the inside
of a mouth, only puckered a bit,
only covered by a plastic bag somewhere
above the waist
for easy access
which is to say it can't be used
for anything
except meticulous cleaning
of the surrounding skin.
There's the loss of privacy, of pride.
Most of the nurses are kind
although some think strange things
when observing mutilated skin
stitched somewhere between 'body-image''
and 'intimacy' in the brochure
it says anal sex is impossible,
that the colostomy
must not be used, that it must refuse
to be a puckering mouth. It may as well
be a flower.
Alice Eastley lives in a small non tropical island with her two teenage sons, a staffy/border collie pup and on a good weekend, with her lover, Larry.
Previous work has been published in Double Dare Press, Mannequin Envy, The Absinthe Literary Review, Word Riot with forthcoming work in apostrophe. (April 2007)
Close this screen and the menu will appear. If frames-incompatible, Click Lunarosity