The Partner

The travel bag, neat and ready,
still sits on the bed, as if waiting,
as if confused or mad. 

That night, he had planed on
leaving in the early morning
for the high school reunion and more; 

that was changed by my sudden 
vertigo and fall; that night.
I couldn't rise but managed to say:
I need to see a doctor. 

Admitting the state, he took me 
to the E.R.; learned my B.P. pressure, 
way up sky. Why? a crazy bird
no one knows where from.

The nurse's voice woke me from dozing. 
Outside window, the lights of the city buildings;
on the horizon, orange dawn or sunset,
I could not tell.

Every three minutes, the automatic B.P. pressure
attached to my arm, shows the vital; the frantic angel.
Still too high, the nurse says, you need to stay 
a couple of days. 

At home, I'm sorry for the canceled trip,
I tell him. And thank you for your help.

Don't mention it, he says. 
Isn't that what the partners do?

Yes, we are man and wife partners! I nod.
That night; had his plan on leaving,
five or six hours earlier; I, all alone, 
fallen and could not get up; that night;
and he would have returned home changed. 

©Byung A. Fallgren