Scott Simpson · Poetry

Operation Before Christmas

Selected Poems 1989 to 2009 · source pages 21

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Source page 21

I took my grandfather apart

today

unfolding the hand-stitched

corners of his

shadowed, smiling eyes

pulling back the home-spun layers of his

comfortable body...

The doctors found a faulty valve

in his heart

and I wanted to say

I always knew it was there

letting too much in--- not

enough out.

It is snowing,

my eyes flick to follow

pieces of him

I will always remember;

I crane dizzily for the many I have not

yet seen.

They steam as they touch his open

breast...

Fix him well.

Give him a new valve in his heart

to open wide; to let me

taste

something of the bitterness

and the sweetness that is (still)

his life.