Dr. Hussey's Living Room
His office: the living room of a two-story
house. I sat in an entryway near strangers
with stuffed noses, bleeding arms, consumptive
coughs, broken bones, bulging bellies
to visit a living room where no family
sat in evening entertainment. Death, misery,
invaded that house. Years later I learned that
three children nearly my age grew up near the
echoes of that living room unseen by me,
hiding who-knows-where those evenings my
parents took me there when I had the flu,
sprained an ankle, needed a vaccination.
The children are grown now, married,
and in their new living rooms I wonder
what manner of living and dying take place.
gene fehler
