Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
Delicious is pain’s end,
delightful its leave taking
when worn bone-ends sigh
and smile, astonished
at the white-linen purity
of black pain’s blessed absence.
Oh Lord, blessed be
the Merry Mercks,
most Wellcome are the Squibbs!
Oh Lord, to heaven may
my hosannas fly
as I Celebrex the high!
‘Tis because I know so well
the ordinary — no — the sacred,
most extraordinary
happiness
of nerve ends sweetly nesting,
tendons gently resting,
free at last
when pain has passed.
— Rice Lyons
Rice Lyons has been leading her poetry workshop, “The Wonder of Wordplay,” for over 12 years at the Princeton Senior Resource Center. During her 30 years as an administrator at Princeton University, she initiated and taught “LAFF, Life After Forty Five.” Her poetry has appeared in various publications.
