Sick Leave

every now and again, i get sick and i am forced to go on leave from work for a couple of weeks at a time. as i sit here in bed, watching the days slip by, i remember a man with whom i had the privilege of being my mentor and my friend, sid gomez hildawa.

he once sent me a text message, asking my thoughts regarding his new blog. we exchanged opinions, and he decided to stick to naming it The SGH Foster-A-Poem Homepage. he asked me to choose a poem that i would like to take care of, and i selected Sick Leave, for obvious reasons.

and now, i would like to share with you the poem that reflects my current state of mind.

Sick Leave


Like a patch of skin spared
from sunburn by a shield
of cloth or sunblock lotion,
there's a rectangle on the wall
lighter than the wall itself,
where a painting used to hang.
Now that the artwork is gone,
visitors ask, "What used to be
there?,"
as if they hadn't seen the piece
before,
or maybe not carefully enough.
"Wasn't there a woman seated
in a cafe?, Didn't she have a glass
of wine, or some company?,"
The damp ground, eavesdropping
almost shifts, holding up a house
whose wall holds up a rusty nail
in its perpetual upturned pose,
holding up no answer.

On my fourth day in hospital
with dextrose feeding me twenty
drops a minute, I picture in my mind
a space I may have left behind,
not entirely empty, but of air
made thinner by my absence,
or of a lighter tissue,
so that people pause, inquire,
and imagine what used to be there.


"So where's the painting now?"



vvvvv

(With reference to Juan Luna's painting, "Parisian Life")

For more of his works, please visit http://lihawad.blogspot.com

Sid, you are sorely missed.