Sweat Chlorides
Careful as chickadees with their only child
Millicent ebullient to be Mom at last.
Big Joe: tool chest, toy tractor, tiny overalls --
Daily offerings on the altar of my boy.
Do the test if you want, ain’t nothing but colds!
Sweat Chlorides; positive, cystic fibrosis.
One curly-haired toddler,
Millicent muted, wet-plaster pale,
Big Joe? Adrift on The Sea of Rage.
The slowing centrifuge sings as it spins
The wall clock sweeps enfilade seconds away
To the sound of the glassware’s small distant chimes.
Through the window behind them gilt leaves descend
To the river that mirrors their fall from the sky.
So you’ve come from there
well connected
and know much of that place.
Tell me; are the blackberries
on the hillside yet in bloom?
BIO: Following service as a U.S. Marine, John Guthrie garnered a formal education and practiced family medicine in the Smoky Mountain foothills of the Appalachians. He's currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (Fiction/Poetry) at Antioch University, Los Angeles. His work (non-fiction, poetry and fiction) appeared in publications to include; The Blue Collar Review; POINT: South Carolina's Independent Political Magazine; The Worcester Review; The Harvard Square Commentary, Watermark Literary Magazine; LEATHERNECK: the Magazine of the Marines and The Journal of the South Carolina Medical Association as well as other publications in the US and abroad.
