POST OP

a pin in the hip of the night nurse
who brings me weak codeine
her boyfriend she says
as big as me
stumbled and crushed her
here, she touches herself
her white slacks taut
on her hip tight on her thigh

I'm only just now getting back to work
she says, are you
better now? the mild narcosis

I'm routine here, a lower
right quadrant abdominal
an "appy" they say in the halls
sleep spreading and the night
nurse has blue mascara
and wants to talk

another nurse
brings ice for the face
of my roommate
his bleeding cancerous face
does the tv bother you, he asks me
I'm lost without it

the room clears and the night
nurse reappears, my boyfriend
she says, didn't mean it
and what counts is
I'm working again and
walking fine now, don't you think?
she moves across the room
in the tv light

here, she says, offering
a codeine-4 in a small white cup
I know how hard it is to sleep

–Tony Quagliano