Reading Therapy

Notes from a Convalescent

By: Stephen Rifkin - Jun 12, 2015

Reading Therapy

One thing that I really wish

Is that my left foot looked less

Like a giant purple blow fish.

 

An accident left me in a mess.

I lie in bed and read Philip K. Dick—

For me, he’s not an ordinary pick.

 

I keep a pee bottle at my side,

Or go slow on crutches to the bath.

Phil’s time travel really suits me up.

                        

I like the atmosphere of rain

And great cities limned in ruin.

Right now, I’m not a partisan of bliss.

 

In Dick’s slow pan, I delve dystopias.

It’s a pleasure, knowing there are no utopias.

Human projects always seem to miss

 

A step, which I can vouch for in a whirl.

I want to save a doomed, sexy android girl—

Rise in my hover car, take a stand, break the rules.

 

She hides in towers, on drizzly streets, and with creatures to avoid.

She’s drawn to crap, downbeat versions of Detroit.

I feel something, Philip Dick, not Schadenfreud!

 

When I get well, whenever that is,

I’ll try again to read William Gaddis.

 

Stephen Rifkin

North Adams, 6/8/15