LET'S GET...UMMM...PHYSICAL: I went and had a full physical exam -- my first since I was a teenager -- this morning at the Emory Clinic. I also got to meet my new physician since my former doctor/friend/fellow author Ferrol Sams hung up his stethoscope last month. The new doc was a nice guy, but his name is so similar to that of the eighth president of the United States (nickname Old Kinderhook) that I had to refrain from calling him Mr. President. He must be an ancestor because he looks just like the picture at right. Now, imagine him pulling on a rubber glove and telling you to assume the position. Yes, sir, Old Kinderhook.I had forgotten what a full physical entailed, so I was poked, prodded, fingered, EKG'd, x-rayed, peed in a cup and gave blood. To top it off, I also got a flu and tetanus shot (which I didn't think I needed, but since it was 20 years since the last one, Old Kinderhook insisted). While I won't get the lab work back until after the holidays, the initial findings were, thankfully, good. My blood pressure is normal, the EKG was okay, and, after a finger up the bumhole, Old Kinderhook proclaimed that my prostate was "just fine." After watching my dad suffer with his multiple illnesses (many of which could have been prevented or controlled if he hadn't been so stubborn about going to doctors), I decided it was time to be pro-active. I'm also working on losing weight. I'm even drinking Coke Zero now, which is slightly better than Diet Coke (ick, blech patooey), but not by much.
I'm looking forward to the upcoming holiday break so I can finish up some projects, including writing a poem and essay for an upcoming anthology about gay men and their favorite divas. Mine, of course, is Kate Bush. I've got a couple of other fellowship applications to fill out and I think I'm about ready to start re-sequencing the new collection of poems. I had been struggling at finding a linking theme with this work, or an arc, but it hit me last week while working on the poem for the David Lynch anthology and talking with Harper that a majority of the new work was either inspired by or contains references to cinema. The "arc" suddenly fell into place. Am I excited? Yes, I am.
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