today I wear three
one, on my toe:
it is remarkable that a thin strip wrapped
around the torn flesh of my great
toe (where I dropped a book
last night) has sheltered it inside
my shoe and prevented the shrieking
pain I felt whenever I rolled
against the sheet in bed
and two rub together on the fourth and fifth
finger of my right hand over ugly
lumps (which I have tried to pass off
as callouses but for which I truly must
admit the word—warts)
hiding them from my grandchildren’s
(and my patients’) fear of contagion
their box is now about a third full
all one size, ‘jumbo’,
fabric, non-latex
but the box is cardboard
oh! I miss that wonderful tin box
that held my fortune
(my babysitting money)
in 1966
but still I salute you
Johnson & Johnson
reliable, trustworthy, safe!
(see, here, in this picture from 1957 I sport
your product smack on my forehead
and here in 2024 my grandchild
wears its newest generation,
marked with a Disney Princess
smack on their little nose)
