Here’s a recording of my poem “Runaway Bus,” which was featured on Postcard Poems and Prose Magazine in January 2017 and is included in my chapbook, From Every Moment a Second, available for order via Amazon.com and Finishing Line Press.
Runaway Bus
Wishing for pristine airways
and unfeathered dreams, I lie
on my right side, and wait.
Again, the bellows flex and pump.
The relentless tickle, exploding,
another round of gasps and mucus retained,
one droplet among others,
spread across the night.
Comfort’s runaway bus never slows,
and I watch it pull away, shrinking in time.
Wait, wait, I say. I bought a ticket.
O at the Edges 
Wonderful recording! And enticing poem – possibilities for “ticket” for “comfort” swirl between the lines. Is this a post-surgery poem maybe?
[Fascinating what leaps forward in my hip-replace-recovery mind – soooo ache like to lie on my right side! I’d let any bus leave me in such relative bliss! Another 2.25 months ahead of flat-on-back-only – wondering about “buses” I don’t see, don’t know I’m missing … and how to get a ticket on the comfort bus!]
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Jazz, I just wanted to say that I feel you: My recovery from spinal fusion and nerve root decompression surgery back in 2015 was so much of what you’ve been describing. On my first full day without narcotics about six weeks post-surgery, I remember marveling, almost disbelievingly, “I’m alive!” Healing took a long, long time, but it’s truly better now. I’m sending cyber-love for your journey toward *better*, too! ❤️
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Narcotics (essential, mostly) are the worst of the whole surgery experience. Condolences after-the-fact for your 6-week endurance. Amazing what human bodies can accomplish when the underlying spirit is not ready to quit just yet!!
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Thank you, Jazz. This was inspired (?) by a lengthy sinus infection in fall of 2015. I suppose there’s poetry in just about anything. Ha! I hope your recovery is speedy!
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Wait – 2015 brought health challenges for both you and Stephanie, independently? Was the Universe syncing you up somehow? [I walked around the block today – with rollator, of course – but yes, I’m recovering!]
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Mine was just an annoyance. But the stars did line up eventually. I’m so glad to hear that you walked around the block. Congratulations!
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I miss Postcard, Poems and Prose. Loved the images they came up with for our poems.
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It was a lovely, well curated site. I, too, miss it.
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