Care Giver, Robert Joe Stout

Marilyn Higginson, Wild Horse Creek, Oil on Wrapped Canvas


Care Giver

Even when you’re gone
the telephone rings. I answer
and hear you talking to someone else
                            love     want      hold
                            love     want      hold

I meet you
in strange places: a corner of the bedroom,
watering the plants, driving the car.
You look up and create
someone like me
who is not me
and go scampering into conversations
I would never hold
                 Oprah     acupuncture     angiograms
                 tarot     Zolof     hair

I am the invisible visible
who cooks and launders
and watches Little League
continually plotting
to assassinate
                            the me     the him     the other
                            rescue you     from them
                       from yourself      from death

_____________________
Robert Joe Stout

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