Vernon Scannell
The Year of the Crab
The Treatment
Day after aching day, week after clubfoot week,
the course of radiation moved
towards its fifth and final week;
and now, at last, the daily treatments done,
he wears a scarf of stinging-nettles
tight about his throat.
His mouth, a little dungeon, dark and dry,
is haunted by the vile, insistent shade
of putrefying fish; a slender tube
creeps up one nostril and descends
to unprotesting stomach to convey
some tasteless stuff that holds him down to earth.
He hears faint feathery reports
of snow and early dark, and longs for her
to bring that perfect sweetness to the heart’s
unsullied palate and the faint,
remembered fragrance of her wake.
Page(s) 50-51
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