Victor Enns lives and writes in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He grew up in a small prairie border town just across from Neche North Dakota. Poems from his "Afghanistan Confessions" appeared recently in Rattle (California) and another two are forthcoming in Wascana Review (Canada). Two collections of his poetry have been published in Canada and his work appears regualrly in journals there.

Victor Enns

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Waiting For Dr. Hammond

Well George, my shrink says I should write about you,
but that is a lie. He thinks I should write about the betrayal
of my body as it begins to break down ahead of schedule.

Every morning now I struggle into my braces described by my physio
as if they were guy wires holding up a tree, not quite capable of standing
up by itself. Why, George, do I not find this reassuring though there are days

I feel as big as a tree, but filled with ants and rot, just plain tired
of being a tree. The leaves I turn are in a book called Freedom.
I call the one doctor in town who may be able to replace my ankle

with a titanium joint, reach only an answering machine, Wait
is the answer; six to nine months, wait – a lesson my father
tried to leave with me in his dying.