Valentine to a Wounded Wife…by Robert M. Katzman
February/12/2016
I see you sleeping in a darkened room
Dry lips slightly parted
Your Scandinavian cheekbones
Distinct as ski slopes
Your blonde hair dirty and lank
Your skin is pale
You wear no make-up
And to me you are so beautiful
There are clear tubes flowing oxygen
Into your lungs
There are compression sleeves on your legs
Amazing legs that led to our children
And they squeeze periodically
Preventing blood clots
A steel wheelchair sits next to your bed
Quietly unused
I watched you breathing
I hold your hand
Skin translucent, blue veins visible
You/we are both sixty-five now
But your taut face records no wrinkles
Except when you smile or laugh
And I so remember your rich laugh
Slate blue eyes dancing
Still entrancing me
When we would walk into a room
I would disappear
Next to you I am invisible
All eyes riveting to your beauty
And they stay there
And I don’t mind at all
Because when I am with you
I am still one of them
Willingly captured
Sometimes you recognize me
Sometimes you smile slightly and murmur
Hi, Bob
And I think, she still remembers me
I kiss her soft lips
For the millionth time
She kisses me back
Romantic memory?
God, I hope so
Many times
She is angry
Her plain bed a prison
Love/Hate morphine
Deluding her
The radiation pain
Stabbing her
And all I can do is hold her hand
I sigh in resignation
Prayer is for the witness
I imagine a Heaven overwhelmed
Endless lines stretching to infinity
Anonymously pleading for mercy
I think love
May be my willingness
To be in her Hell of pain
With her
So she won’t have to be alone
But then I think
Imagination and drama aside
Maybe love is actually
Sitting quietly in her silent room
On Valentines Day
Even if she doesn’t even know
That I’m still there
Our two old hearts
Still beating
Together
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The poem was inspired by a conversation with our son, David, or as the rest of the world knows him: Konee Rok, on the same day I wrote it. He is an amazingly talented animated music video artist/producer: koneerok.com
I thank him for the idea and what it produced.
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Publishing News!
Bob Katzman’s two new true Chicago books are now for sale, from him!
Vol. One: A Savage Heart and Vol. Two: Fighting Words
Gritty, violent, friendship, classic American entrepreneurship love, death, heartbreak and the real dirt about surviving in a completely corrupt major city under the Chicago Machine. More history and about one man’s life than a person may imagine.
Please visit my new website: https://www.dontgoquietlypress.com
If a person doesn’t want to use PayPaI, I also have a PO Box & I ship anywhere in America.
Send me a money order with your return and contact info.
I will get your books to you within ten days.
Here’s complete information on how to buy my books:
Vol 1: A Savage Heart and Vol. 2: Fighting Words
My books weigh almost 2 pounds each, with about 525 pages each and there are a total together of 79 stories and story/poems.
Robert M. Katzman
Don’t Go Quietly Press
PO Box 44287
Racine, Wis. 53404-9998 (262)752-3333, 8AM–7PM
Books cost $24.95 each, plus shipping
For: (1)$3.95; (2)$5.95; (3)$7.95; (4)$8.95 (5)$9.95;(6) $10.95
(7) $11.95; (8) $12.95; (9)$13.95 (10)$15.95 (15)$19.95
I am also for hire if anyone wants me to read my work and answer questions in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. Schools should call me for quantity discounts for 30 or more books. Also: businesses, bookstores, private organizations or churches and so on.
My Fighting Words Publishing Co. four original books, published between 2004 and 2007 are now out-of-print. I still have some left and will periodically offer them for sale on my new website.