A sickness poem

“In Sickness and in Health”

D a y   a f t e r   D a y
A comforting order
Something praised
As divinely ordered

 But today I am sick
My body in disorder
I sit running into a stool
Hurling breakfast into a bucket
Order is cast aside for odor

 I prefer that natural order
With my familiar routines
But bodies and the body politik
Seek in sickness to restore health

 On my stool embracing my bucket
I come anew to remember
We belong to one another
In sickness as in health
Still this redeeming odor is
Not always pleasant to sniff