SUDDEN OR SLOW BUT SURE

Wounded by shrapnel in France

six decades back, he’s still

recovering from trauma caused

by trauma.

In every book

by Edward Wood he resurrects

the pain.

When Hemingway received

the wound that made him think

at Fassalta de Liave, the outcome

was the same: re-living

and re-telling what was sudden,

merciless and permanent.

It’s not

confined to war.

Preparing

for a trip to Europe, Reynolds

Price complained of cramping

in his lower back.

X-rays

confirmed a shadow.

Days

later he awoke from surgery

a paraplegic.

Shock was the first

response, then transformation.

Bernard

Costello cased his saxophone

to specialize in oral surgery

after his dearest friend

was mangled in a crash.

H.R.

survived a stroke but lived

a posthumous existence to the end.

And there was Frank the catcher.

Built like a heavyweight, he stood

akimbo when he spoke, flexing

his jaw as if each word

were like a throw to second.

First-string at twenty on the college

varsity, he’d been approached

by scouts and was inclined.

Struck later in the jaw

by a ball thrown wild and hard,

he changed.

Thirty pounds

lighter with a wired jawbone

and six teeth lost, he seemed

uncertain to the point of deference.

The list has no amen.

To trump

the odds, discretion matters less

than valor, which matters less

than zero where absurdity’s concerned.

The ultimate defense is luck.

The ultimate reprieve is luck.

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