Bandera Family Practice
D.G. GEIS

In the waiting room
life decays:

a walker parked in the corner
against two wheelchairs,
four issues of Field and Stream,
one oxygen bottle (unattended),
the wheezing old gent
transplanted to a Danish chair,
carpet pickled green,
an oh so subtle hint of upchuck,
upchuck freighted with blackberries
finishing nicely with a lush flowering of isopropyl
and subtle undertones of pus,
The Watchtower,
another religious tract entitled: “Hell is No Joke!”,
an equally monitory treatise titled: “Diabetes: the Facts,”
Highlights for Children, “Hospice Care: What You Need to Know”
(these two are separate items),
A fortyish grandmother with run-flat tits and a two-ish grandson
(no tits, no teeth, no problem),
People (the magazine),
more people (the waiting room),
Texas Highways,
my copy of the Penguin Selected Essays of Montaigne
page 25, Book 1, Chapter 9
“Of Liars.”

“Our soul happy in the present, Cares not what lies beyond.”
I love it when Montaigne quotes Horace;
almost as much as when he quotes himself:
“He who fears he shall suffer,
            already suffers what he fears.”

I have a 10:30 appointment
with Dr. Khalafy.

I have no idea where he is from
or even where he went to school.

I like him because he is sympathetic
and brown.

I like him because he never frowns
and respects the rights of malingerers.

I like him because he knows my despair of diapers
and that I occasionally leak urine.

I like him because he washes his hands
before he ever touches me.

I like him because when he says “Open Wide”
what he really means is “Allah be merciful!”

I like him because when the time comes
he will gently take my hand

and tell me
     god-willing

that everything will be all right.



D.G. Geis lives divides his time between Houston and Galveston, Texas. His first full length book, Fire Sale was published by Tupelo Press (Leapfolio) in February 2017. His chapbook Mockumentary will be published in May of 2017 by Main Street Rag. Most recently, his poetry has appeared (or is forthcoming) in Fjords, Skylight 47 (Ireland), A New Ulster Review (Ireland), Crannog Magazine (Ireland), The Moth, (Ireland), Into the Void (Ireland), The Naugatuck River Review, The Tishman Review, Zoomorphic (U.K.), The Kentucky Review, The Fish Anthology (Ireland), Blue Bonnet Review, Drylandlit, Permafrost, Ink and Letters, The Journal of Creative Geography, Solstice, The Worcester Review, Broad River Review, Riddled With Arrows, Cloudbank, and Under the Radar (Nine Arches Press UK). He is editor-at-large of Tamsen and a finalist for The New Alchemy (University of Alaska) and Fish Prizes (Ireland). He was also a finalist for the 2016 Main Street Rag Chapbook Competition, The Edna St. Vincent Millay Prize, The 2016 Louis Award, The 2016 Rash Award, and was shortlisted for both the 2017 Percy French Prize (Strokestown International Poetry Prize Ireland) and the 2017 Ballymaloe International Poetry Prize (Ireland). He has an undergraduate degree in English Literature from the University of Houston and a graduate degree in philosophy from California State University. He was formerly a rancher in the Hill Country of Central Texas.