My Missing Sock! …[ Old Age; Disability; Serious (Mostly): Military Veterans; Quite Long ] Poem by Bri Edwards

Me: "WHERE'S MY DAMN SOCK? ! " …[I said aloud …to No One.
Sometimes living in a Veterans Hospital is absolutely No Fun!
I've been here since my stroke, fifteen years ago.I was then retired.
I was a telephone operator (30 years) , starting when phones were ‘wired'.]

Me: "WHERE'S MY DAMN SOCK? ! " …[I repeated, this time to a nurse.]
Nurse: "Mr. Edwards, is it the one with Stars & Stripes? "[Bri begins to curse.]
Me: "Of course that's ‘the one', Mark.Have I got myself any other! ?
DAMN! Where did that Son-of-a-B+tch go? Mother F+ck+r! ! "
[I meant my missing sock.]

Nurse: "Now, now, Bri, there's no real need to get so upset."
Me: "Not for YOU, but it's MY sock.I've looked, but haven't found it ….yet."
Nurse: "I'm sure you will, sir.You always do.Have you checked your SHOE? "
Me: "My shoe be damned. ….Can you fluff my pillow, & get me water? "

[‘Mark' fluffs Bri's pillow & replaces it on Bri's bed.]
Nurse: "There ya go.Your pillow's all fluffed, sir.
Now I'll get you fresh water.You'll find that sock.I'm sure."
Me: "I'd better! Ma knitted five pairs when I was in Korea, ….
freezing my damn a+s off, and getting shot at, ….AND gettin' diarrhea."

[[ Nurse: "This is one of Bri's ‘good days'.On others he's much worse.
A lot of our Vets get dementia, a f++king curse.
Bri got a foot shot to hell in N. Korea in '52.(I served in Iraq.)
Being a nurse here at the V.A. takes patience [no pun] ….and tact.

Nurse (cont.) : "I've been here five years.I've seen better nurses ‘burn out'.
Some get depressed treating the Vets.Others lose patience and SHOUT ….
…at the poor guys.Either way, nurses leave & patients stay,
….many for many years, till they die.Often they just ‘fade away'."]]

Me: "I was lucky I just lost a foot.But nasty dreams follow me too.
Now, where the hell is my sock? I've only the one.It's Red, White, & Blue,
…..like our Flag.BUT, …. I didn't go to Korea because of patriotism,
AND I didn't go ‘cause I understood OR ‘cause I opposed Communism.

"I went because Dad said: "Go, Son! ", …and to PROVE…
that I was NO CHICKEN.The Marines took me and my a+s did move …
…to God-forsaken ‘Chinksville' (I called it) .There three months only ….
…and got my foot shot to sh+t.My right leg still feels lonely.

Me (cont.) : "My left foot is COLD! ; my ‘missing one' just feels pain.
My right foot's gone, but the nerves from ‘it' do fool my old brain."
Nurse: "Here's the promised water, sir.Want a towel for the foot? "
Me: "NO! No towel! I want my sock, Joe.Where did I PUT …..it? "

Nurse: "Perhaps it's in your bathrobe pocket? Once you found it there.
Maybe it's time you give in and get more socks so you'll have a ‘spare'."
Me: "Jesus Christ, Al, I'm not a f++king car; I don't want a ‘spare'.
I WANT the sock (my LAST one) made by Ma; it ain't fair! ! !

Me: "Did my sister call me today, Mark? It's high time she did."
Nurse: "Mr. Edwards, your sister died last year, but your KID-brother, …
….Tom, stopped in to visit you last week.Remember? "
Me: "No, he DID NOT! ! It's June.He only visits me in December."

Nurse: "Your brother Tom visits you almost twice a month; it's TRUE.
Why don't I take you into the hallway for an hour or two?
Then it'll be nearly lunch time.You're having pot pies today.
There's chicken or beef.Or have a hamburger & have it ‘your way'."

[Bri gets into wheelchair, with his bare foot & bathrobe, red.
While sitting near nurses' station, Bri finds sock in robe pocket, like nurse said.]
Me: "I'll be damned! ! My sock! From my dear Ma."[Bri cries.
Around him some ‘young' Vets laugh.A grey-haired one, a ‘Colonel', sighs.

A shapely female, the ‘Head Nurse', walks by, says: "Hi, Men! "
She's an Army major.Most patients salute her, and try …
…to keep from saying something they might later regret,
…something that might embarrass "her", or, God-forbid, get her UPSET! !

But not Bri! At age 80, he may be impotent, but Bri …remembers when ….
he chased ‘skirts' at the phone company! Other Vets ……‘count to ten'.]
Me: "Well, well.Is this Aphrodite or ANOTHER goddess I'm seeing? "
[The colonel nearly chokes.He doesn't, but he CAN'T keep from peeing …..in his diaper.]

[[Bri's Nurse: "So, that's a taste for you of life on a Veterans Hospital floor.
I'm NOT ‘Mark', OR ‘Joe', OR ‘Al'.At least he calls me ‘Sue' ….No More.
I hope to hell I never NEED to be a patient here.What a CURSE! !
BUT, life ‘On The Outside', for many Vets, AND others, may be worse."]]


(June …19th & 26th … 2018)