Friday Poem: "Something I Forgot"

Something I Forgot

We're sitting side by side
a woman half my age
and I both waiting
but for different doctors

We chat softly as if
we have been friends for years
beginning when an addled patient
marches across her foot
and I respond sympathetically

But then she's called
and then I'm called
and focus shifts to pain

Later as I emerge
she appears again  I hear
her doctor tell her to relax
I see the band aid spot
where blood was likely drawn

As we settle up we talk some more
I diagnose amnesia when
she tells the clerk she's forgotten
something the doctor said
she repeats the word as if
in recognition but then
I'm done and so we say
goodbye goodbye

Outside in the parking lot
I remember something I forgot
and head back just as she
comes out a woman wearing
shorts sandy-haired no name

As I rush by she asks if
I'm all right   just something
I forgot I say and dart inside

This is when a great sadness
settles over me

And does not leave

6/15-6/29/96, 6/15/07

Copyright 1996, 2007 by Maurice Leiter

Posted with permission.