“It’s a hard pill to swallow,” she told her daughter.
She came to visit her mom yesterday as she about to take her fourth pill with three more to follow. “Religiously” follow pill-taking doesn’t begin to explain her morning regimen. “Why are you taking this pill Mom?” she asks her. She tells her that it’s been years and doesn’t know any longer but it’s clearly apparent that she would surely die if the first three were not taken before the fourth; making the fourth pill futile and her remaining three even more, futile.” (As though “futile” needs a modifier!)
“You should talk to your doctor, then,” says concerned daughter as any of us would reply. “I don’t want to bother him,” says Mom as any eighty-year-old would say. “It must be good for me, after all, it’s blue.”
The pill is the largest of her seven and being colored blue doesn’t seem to make the “going down” any easier. “Why not place it in some apple sauce?” says daughter who stumbled on an internet article when searching for another site. “The doctor told me…” says Mom who just wants to down the damn thing to ingest the remaining three.
It’s a hard pill…
when your husband dies a lingering death as you pray, you watch and you remember
when your son elopes, no messages even with all these available technologies
when that stupid spill in the kitchen leads you to six weeks of therapy
when the star in a movie you rooted for dies at the end and tears begin to flow
when that “other” person got the promotion, even with all your experience
when the Packers get so close and then pack it in
when the outdoor party gets rained on but everyone except you laughs about it
when he promised he’d call tonight…
when she promised she would…
Mom puts the blue pill into the apple sauce only because her daughter is standing over her. It will not happen again because the doctor didn’t tell her to put the blue pill into apple sauce. All seven pills are digested for whatever effect or non-effect they may have in her life.
Her morning routine has been completed and now she will live forever except for those other pills that just seem to be lodged in her throat.
Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
Soulful Muse 