Status Post Surgery

By Aaron Poller

After surgery the world looks good,
even great if you discount the effect

of 1000 mg. of vicodin q. 6 hrs.,
don’t get caught up in the nursing shortage,

or the powerful self admonition
about work and productivity

essential to the body politic
as well as the body temporal.

Kick back, listen to mellow music, let
the body do its own work for a change.

Maybe some dear friend will drop in
with something vegan for dinner

or a thoughtful snack that will save me
from another jiggling trip to the Harris T.

where I feel too down to squeeze the fruit,
too up to buy junk or anything filled

with carbohydrates that will bring my body
back to earth, to heaven’s lamentation.

Aaron Poller was born in the Bronx, New York. He received a BA in English Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied writing and poetry with Robert Mezey, Jean Garrigue and Daniel Hoffman. He studied mental health nursing at Montgomery County Community College, LaSalle University, and University of Pennsylvania. He is currently a Board Certified Psychiatric/Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist. He has worked for over 35 years in mental health nursing and since 2005 maintains a practice as a psychotherapist in Winston-Salem, N.C. He also teaches mental health nursing at Winston-Salem State University. He has two grown daughters and lives with his wife, four dogs and two cats.