Poetry Corner

I was adjusting to being on O2 and had trouble learn- ing how to attach and detach the conserving device to my portable tanks. My daughter knew I like poems, so she wrote the directions in verse. Now I’m doing just fine!

Conserving device …

Green key-silver dome

This is how I’ll start my poem. Turn the key clockwise to close, Stops the oxygen to my nose.

Now gray handle on the side Must be loosened–device will slide Off of the tank, allowing me

To put in new tank easily. The tricky part in all of this:

Aligning prongs–I must not miss. Once prongs are in (they’re like a plug) Turn gray handle until snug.

Now with green key one-half turn Counter-clockwise I did learn.

Make sure O2 is set at three Now I’m ready–Now I’m free!

by Heather Ver Brugge for Eleanor Hoppe

Albuquerque, NM

I have a neurological problem which keeps my COPD company. My feelings about them came together in this poem.

Sometimes as I sit …

In cold October gray

I wonder why the man Is treating me this way.

It seems I’m always sitting In the freezing rain,

Wet, cold and wondering “Why must I sit in pain?” Then I begin to realize The storm is just a door Opening up my heart

For the sun to shine some more. Warming me with the laughter Of my children through the years, Knowing love in the fingers

That brush away my tears.

A chance to savor each moment That has been and is still to be A chance to know the joy

That life has meant to me.

by Mike Womack Budd Lake, NJ