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More poems by John BerrymanJohn Berryman | Print this page.Print | Order a PoetryNotes Analysis of this poem.Analysis | View and Write CommentsComments

Dream Song 94: Ill lay he long, upon this last return

John Berryman

Ill lay he long, upon this last return,
unvisited. The doctors put everything in the hospital
into reluctant Henry
and the nurses took it out & put it back,
smiling like fiends, with their eternal 'we.'
Henry did a slow burn,

collapsing his dialogue to their white ears
& shiny on the flanges. Sanka he drank
until his memories blurred
& Valerie was coming, lower he sank
and lovely. Teddy on his handlebars
perched, her. One word he heard

insistent his broad shortcomings, then lay still.
That middle-sized wild man was ill.
A hospital is where it all has a use,
so is a makar. . So is substantial God,
tuning in from abroad.

Added: 25 Mar 2002 | Last Read: 5 Sep 2008 4:57 AM | Viewed: 1936 times

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URL: http://plagiarist.com/poetry/3686/ | Viewed on 5 September 2008.
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