The Call Button

I was flying across the Pacific

and, inadvertently, I pressed the call button

and when the flight attendant appeared

I roused myself out of a mid-flight

half sleep half wake

and apologized and went back to my half state

Another call button arose in my thoughts

it was the early sixties and I was awaiting

a minor operation on a Sunday afternoon

bored in the hospital fascinated by the TV remote

warned to never press 

the call button lying snakelike next to my pillow

I must have clicked the television through

its three or four channels a thousand times

sparing a glance every other minute

to the forbidden call button by my head

all night as I half slept

it winked and beckoned in the room's half light

And yet another call button came to my mind

into a cool hospital room as I watched my mother

wrapped in ice to cool the fever

and wrapped in morphine to cool the pain

as breathing stopped

and I reached for the call button by her head

5/13/17

jeg.