{"id":552,"date":"2015-06-16T06:51:42","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T10:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/?p=552"},"modified":"2015-08-06T12:14:21","modified_gmt":"2015-08-06T16:14:21","slug":"poem-uncle-bill-at-the-v-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/poem-uncle-bill-at-the-v-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Poem: Uncle Bill at the V.A."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Uncle Bill at the V.A.<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/uncle-bill-va-view-chrysler.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-554\" src=\"https:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/uncle-bill-va-view-chrysler-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"uncle bill va view chrysler\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/uncle-bill-va-view-chrysler-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/uncle-bill-va-view-chrysler-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/uncle-bill-va-view-chrysler.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On the 11th floor of the V.A. hospital<br \/>\nIn Manhattan is a restroom for guests<br \/>\nOutside it, a painting of a hammock on a beach<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>At the other end of a long corridor<br \/>\nIs a veteran<br \/>\nWith I.V. bag, catheter bag,<br \/>\nA bag of clothes in the corner<br \/>\nAnd a chair that sighs when you sit<\/p>\n<p>His sister strokes his hair, his face,<br \/>\nLiver spotted<br \/>\nGray hair, white whiskers<br \/>\nIt\u2019s cold in here<br \/>\nI wonder if he\u2019s cold<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLittle brother you can go<br \/>\nanytime you want. It\u2019s okay.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cI know that. It\u2019s very painful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later the doc<br \/>\nMakes him stop<br \/>\nwisecracking during the Q &amp; A<\/p>\n<p>What year is it<br \/>\n2014<br \/>\nWho is the president<br \/>\nObama<br \/>\nWhere are you<br \/>\nThe V.A. hospital<br \/>\nOn what street<br \/>\nEast 23rd<\/p>\n<p>I silently cheered that moment<br \/>\nIn a hospital room<br \/>\nWith a view of the Chrysler Building<\/p>\n<p>At the end of a hallway<br \/>\nIn a brick building<br \/>\nLined with pictures of the beach<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 2014 Eileen Ridge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Uncle Bill at the V.A. On the 11th floor of the V.A. hospital In Manhattan is a restroom for guests Outside it, a painting of a hammock on a beach<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[78,43,76,77],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":570,"href":"https:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions\/570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eileenridge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}