Rhythm
Dr. Lloyd Jacobs
The call came the week of Thanksgiving
Monday or Tuesday, I think. The ground
was gaunt and the trees were skeletal.
Female voice, no name given.
Calling from the Device Clinic, she said.
Your heart rhythm has changed. Irregularly irregular. Atrial fibrillation.
Independent of the pacemaker you have. Stroke risk. Cardioversion.
We were three in the November wind:
She, mere emanation from my cell phone,
I skeptical, and I watching the tableau.
She was quick to take umbrage at disbelief How does she know? Who knows
what about me? Your medical big brother.
It is that damned electronic box came with the pacemaker, relaying impulses
from my nightstand to God knows where, Mars probably,
the Andromeda Galaxy. Can they read a dream? The universe
is convulsed by my heart’s convulsion.
The world began a dance to a new rhythm.
Dr. Lloyd Jacobs is President Emeritus of The University of Toledo, he has published 3 colletions of poetry, previously he was a professor of vascular surgery at the University of Michigan
