From Nerve Cowboy #19, Spring 2005

THE CUFF OF DOOM

Sitting on the ledge

of the doctor's table

fidgeting, the new white

patient's paper cover

crinkling beneath my jeans

the doctor finally comes in

to take my blood pressure

she pumps the black ball

the cuff tightening around

the sweaty hinge of my arm

her face gets serious

Is it bad? I ask

after she deflates her cuff of doom

It's elevated, she says

Are you nervous? she asks

I feel my heart in my throat, I say

I haven't been here in ten years, I add

Okay, I'll go check on someone else

and be hack in about ten minutes to

take another reading, she says

Think calm thoughts, she says

then she closes the door

to the horrible little pink room

my pulse slows down finally

as I stare at a jar of cotton balls

& allow my mind to drift back

twenty-five years ago,

to my two favorite cousins

Petey Boy and Benny

the way they used to bring us

smaller kids out on the lawn

at dusk in the summertime

how they'd set up a semi circle

of old wooden folding chairs

how we'd sit on our legs waiting

the two of them facing us in the center

fireflies flashing in the air around us

& the steady repetition of crickets

then they'd start retelling their

favorite Twilight Zone episodes

they'd team-tell each tale

trading off on details and dialogue

I remember I'd forget everything else:

about school the next day, my dog

my friends, my father and mother

I'd lean on the edge of my chair

waiting for the next scene to unfold

my favorite episode was the one about

the camera that took pictures of the future

my cousins would love to watch

our faces as they retold the mysterious

twist of the last scene

That's why we do it Benny, Petey Boy would say

pointing at my wide-eyed face with

my knees pulled up to my chin

For expressions like that, he'd laugh

then after that Benny would play the guitar

& they'd harmonize Beatles' songs

moving from one song into another

in the thick summertime night

even back then my favorite was "Yesterday"

then afterward, I always felt sad and quiet

in the shadowy backseat on the long drive home

like I had left something behind

Fade. . .

the door swings open

once again the doctor pumps up

the cuff of doom

& we both wait

I keep looking at her face

her mouth scrunches up to one side

like she's almost disappointed at the drop

You were just anxious, she says

It's a lot better than the first reading, she says

But I'd like to keep an eye on it, she adds

as the cuff shrinks back down, defeated

 

 

Rob Plath

Patchogue, NY