Banana Yellow Sunrise

About fell asleep waiting on doctor to come
under beguiling wall poster of limbic system.

“I’m going to give you three words, and I’ll ask
for them back before we’re done.”

I repeated each word after her:
yellow – yellow; banana – banana;

sunrise – sunrise. Then she moved
for the cuff and I rolled up my sleeve

and she asked how Susan was doing.
Sunsee, sunsaw, I thought about

Buckminster Fuller’s neologisms,
and also considered the possibility

the doctor had given me not three
but four words, sunrise compound,

two words in one meaning. There
was a time I might have discussed

this with her, but no more. I felt
my arm swell as the cuff tightened.

Had I fallen in the last year? No,
not that I could recall, small smile.

Trying to keep her three words
top of mind, I inverted them:

banana yellow sunshine, locking
them together as a descriptive

phrase, cleverly reducing work
from three chores to one.

How many beers did I drink
in a week’s time? Finally, she asked

for the three words back,
catching me off guard.

She sat quite close to me,
her face to mine, and I saw

her nonplussed, and I knew
something was wrong.

As I left her office to go down
to the lab to leave some blood,

I thought about the difference
between sunrise and sunshine,

sunshine like adding a 7th
to a sunrise triad.






7 Comments

  1. In that other vein, how’s things?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Joe Linker says:

      Don’t know why we only got two.

      Like

    2. Joe Linker says:

      But ok, ok. Thx Ashen.

      Liked by 2 people

  2. bristlehound says:

    Bucky may have seen “Yellow,Banana,Sunrise” as a banana yellow sunrise and done some of his best work out there. Developing strange and complicated theories on everything from building homes to mainstream off-grid power sourcing.
    Sometimes the trip can be more inspiring than the destination. B

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Joe Linker says:

      One of my favorite books is Bucky Fuller’s Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. I recommend it for these dark times, especially! He was, as he says: “…enthusiastic over humanity’s…” Here is a pdf of it: http://designsciencelab.com/resources/OperatingManual_BF.pdf

      Like

      1. bristlehound says:

        I remember reading “The Critical Path” and arriving at the conclusion that words used by Bucky were either made up or so very long I would never be capable of repeating.
        Nonetheless, it was one of the best books I have read. Stimulating and provoking.
        I’ll check out “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth”. Thanks for the tip Joe.B

        Liked by 1 person

        1. bristlehound says:

          Just had a quick look at said Bucky book. Right up my alley!

          Liked by 1 person

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