Category: COPD

Pneuma

Published on by geriatric pilgrim2 Comments

~

Leaves sway seductively

In a silky blue sky.

The air is clear,

the breeze an energy drink.

To a background of bird songs,

I wave to the crew mowing lawns,

breathing easily

as I walk the neighborhood,

recalling ten days ago

when emphysema rattled my lungs

and my ribs ached from coughing.

Holed up at home, I watched

through the window as

smoke from Canadian wildfires

stained the sky nicotine yellow,

the same color as the mucus

coming up in my throat,

consequence of years

spent fighting fires

in the American Rockies.

And although I can’t undo

the damage from those years

of wood smoke punctuated

by cigarette breaks,

I can take advantage

of this moment and

breathe in the grace 

that smells today of ocean.

~

The COPD Blues

Published on by geriatric pilgrim6 Comments

~

After Jimmy Rogers

~

Woke up this mornin’ with a tickle in my throat. (Lawd, Lawd!)

Woke this mornin’ with a tickle in my throat.

 I said to myself: “Oh God, that’s all she wrote.”

~

By that noon, I was coughin’ frequently.

And by that night, I coughin’ constantly,

Barkin’ like a dog at a cat up in a tree.

~

I got the CO (cough, cough) PD (cough, cough) blu-u-u-u-s! 

~

When I gets to coughin’, I gets so out of breath. (Good God!)

When I gets to coughin”, I gets so out of breath.

And that’s, good peoples, when I contemplates my death.

~

My lungs, they rattles, like an old-time coffee pot.

My lungs, they rattles, like an old-time coffee pot.

My eyes, they’s runny and my nose is full of snot.

~

I got the CO (cough, cough) PD (cough, cough) blu-u-u-u-s!

~

I probly got this from all them cigarettes I smoked.

I probly got this from all them cigarettes I smoked.

They killed my father and they just might make me croak.

~

Then there was these fires out in Idaho.

Two years fightin’ fires out in Idaho.

Another reason, good peoples, that I gets to huff and blow.

~

I got the CO (cough, cough) PD (cough, cough) blu-u-u-u-s!

~

Might start with a head cold, might start with allergies. (Oh, Lawd!)

Might start with head cold, might start with allergies.

Don’t take much these days to make me cough and wheeze.

~

But it makes no difference, not one goddamn bit.

It makes no difference, not one goddamn bit.

Whatever the reasons, I gots to live with it.

~

Or not.

~

I got the CO (cough, cough) PD (cough, cough) blu-u-u-u-s! 

~ ~

(If you want to hear the tune, go to YouTube for Jimmy Roger’s “TB Blues.”)