Emergency Room

[couchgrouch]

Emergency RoomOne night on a road trip westmy father stopped to restfor a spell at Uncle Jonah'she's a modern medicine manwith a cabin on sacred landhigh in the hills of Arizonahis place smelled like jimson and clovehogshead boiling on the stovetuba that he used as a brass spitoonhe took us aways out backand showed us a tin-roof shackhe called the emergency roombuzzards perched on the roofpentagram painted on the doorGod help us...that emergency roomwas a last resortwhen I was a crazy college kidthe craziest thing I didwas let Jonah in my dormitoryI partied some...I was the hippie typebut he mashed something in a hick'ry pipehe said would peel back heaven and glorywell Jonah smiled wide and went outsidesat cross-legged in the silver lightand talked to Jerry Garcia on the moonbut I saw bats n anacondasso my roommate threw me in his Hondaand dumped me at the emergency roomwhen I mentioned peyotethey filed a police reportbut God help me...that emergency roomwas my last resortI musta been outta my mindbut I visited Jonah one more timeI woke up with bird flufrom a night of Wild TurkeyI caught mad cow diseasefrom Jonah's homemade jerkybut he hadda junk his prize spitooncos I was afraid of his emergency roomyeah, buzzards perched on the roofpentagram painted on the doorGod help me...that emergency roomwas a last resort(c)2005 Robert George