The Year of What Now

I ask your doctor

of infectious disease if she's

read Williams he cured

sick babies I tell her and

begin describing spring

and all she's looking at the wall

now the floor now your chart

now the door never

heard of him she says

but I can't stop explaining

how important this is

I need to know your doctor

believes in the tenacity of nature

to endure I'm past his heart

attack his strokes and now as if

etching the tombstone myself I find

I can't remember the date

he died or even

the year of what now

are we the pure products and what

does that even mean pure isn't it

obvious we are each our own culture

alive with the virus that's waiting

to unmake us

Source: The Year of What Now (Graywolf Press, 2013)