Thursday, December 04, 2008

Telemarketers, and Fingers In A Knot


In "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues", Bob Dylan
Writes about how he cannot move,
That his fingers are "all tied in a knot",
Which for some reason is a condition I recognize these days
Because I so often suffer from it.
All my illnesses and symptoms conspire
To make me constantly aflutter, my gait hobbled,
One hand always resting on the walking stick,
Trying to figure out how to carry things through doorways
And yet be able to also open and close the doors...
I am always fumbling with my pill bottles
To such an extent
That while handling one of them okay
I knock another one over.
If I don't knock over what I intend to manipulate,
I knock something else down and end unmanned.
Anything that falls always falls to the goddamn floor.
Now I need THAT, so I have to retrieve it,
Except I can't bend down quite that low without agony,
So I have to go get the grabber that,
Like my cane, I bought at WalMart's cripple counter.
I shower, dress, count out the pills,
And am already tired each morning
Before I can exit the bedroom and get to the kitchen.
Life is hell, unless you somehow like this sort of thing,
Always being awkward, askance, anemic,
Tired and falling down before the beginning
And as mad as hell at everyone
And at yourself that you can't do any better.
Then maybe the phone rings and I rush to answer it
And can't believe how often it's mere jerkoff junk-call,
A recording that's horrible and probably illegal--
Why won't telemarketers ever Die? (is there no God?)--
But more than that, it's all so savagely misleading
For people like me who are sick and can't really hurry.
Nonetheless, I keep trying--it's force of habit.
If I ever can, I'm going to stop answering the goddamn telephone.
Things get kinky. Things get weird.
And ridiculous concepts of decency and dignity
Aren't going to make it ever stop.
Might as well try to bring back the forties.

4 comments:

  1. Maybe, but I finally updated your link. We can both have a drink to THAT!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe what, though? I'm all over the page, you know!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maybe our fingers are "all tied in a knot", we are old, ill and blind and not as beautiful as long ago -- My hair is horrifying and the glaucoma is just as scary -- but I finally have your right link under the name of your blog and it feels good.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ron - I am so sorry that you feel this way and that things have turned so dark and painful for you. I truly hope you get some joy sometimes. Hang in there, man. We all need each other.

    ReplyDelete

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here! (At least put on your socks and pants.)