New Poetry by Bruce Morton

 

Stool Softener 

I wanted to cheer a friend

Who was about to have

Surgery and was dreading

Side effects of painkillers.

I bet him that I could write

A poem about stool softener.

It is so hard to bring oneself 

To be seated, to sit, still 

We do not wish to speak of it,

So simple an act. There must be 

Relief somewhere to purchase

To comfort the tired soul.

I brought him a plush cushion

To rest his tush on, to bring

 A sigh of relief, the ultimate 

Relaxative--a soft pillow.

So here it is, my poem

About stool softener.

-© Bruce Morton 2020

Bruce Morton splits his time between Montana and Arizona. His volume of poems, Simple Arithmetic and Other Artifices, was published in 2015. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in various magazines and anthologies including, most recently, Muddy River Poetry Review, Mason Street Review, Main Street Rag, Nixes Mate Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, Anti-Heroin Chic, Sin Fronteras/Writers Without Borders, and Blue Unicorn. He was formerly Dean of Libraries at Montana State University