TheNewVerse.News : PLAGUE DOCTOR

Thursday, October 27, 2022

PLAGUE DOCTOR

by Douglas Richardson

Plague doctor image: detail from Paul Fürst engraving, c. 1721. —Public Domain via Wikipedia

Anticipating a pleasant evening

filling eclairs in the bakery

I set off on the freeway

satisfied in my own company

but a sudden swerve with violent whiplash

compels me into the pipes and flares

of the oil refinery

where I swear I see

mingling with its anatomy

a plague doctor from the 17th century

black beak

Black Death

black piano key

black thorn in humanity

I chase but he evades me

I reason but he goads me

I dare not tell a soul

Douglas Richardson is a poet and novelist who lives in Santa Ana, California, with his wife Jen and cat Wes. His poetry has been published in The American Journal of Poetry, Anti-Heroin Chic, Black Poppy Review, Cajun Mutt Press, Hobo Camp Review, The Nervous Breakdown, The New Verse News, Straight Forward Poetry, Trouvaille Review, and Poetry Super Highway. In 2013, he won the Poetry Super Highway contest with his entry, “Notes from the Graveyard Shift.”

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Thursday, October 27, 2022

PLAGUE DOCTOR