Waiting..


Billy Collins,
Waiting – in the Doctor’s office

I turn around on the gravel

and go back to the house for a book,

something to read at the doctor’s office,

and while I am inside, running the finger

of inquisition along a shelf,

another me that did not bother

to go back to the house for a book

heads out on his own,

rolls down the driveway,

and swings left toward town,

a ghost in his ghost car,

another knot in the string of time,

a good three minutes ahead of me —

a spacing that will now continue

for the rest of my life.

He is out there always before me,

blazing my trail, invisible scout,

hound that pulls me along,

shade I am doomed to follow,

my perfect double,

only bumped an inch into the future,

and not nearly as well-versed as I

in the love poems of Ovid —

I who went back to the house

that fateful winter morning and got the book.

13 comments on “Waiting..”

  1. Whoa! Sandals without socks, thats the way to do it. It looks so much like my local doctors office, or any other doctors office. The picture books for kids and the uncomfortable chairs. Hope you’re well after all. Nice vignette.

  2. Interesting words to accompany this wonderful capture. I like what you’ve captured in the frame. So typical of the waiting area; which I hate….lolThe photo has exceptional clarity and saturation of color. Very nice.

  3. I like this! totally my cup of tea. the empty space adds tension and an intersting dynamic.

  4. It always seems to be what you stare at the most in doctors offices, the carpet that is 🙂

  5. very nice image

  6. His back would feel better if he wore better sandals 😉

  7. That’s right don’t make any eye contact or they may start talking to you.

  8. What an ordeal the waiting room is, bordering on paranoia, it’s as though everybody staring at you.

  9. Just face it, Elaine: you’re a romantic at heart! 🙂

  10. what a wonderful choice of words for this shot.. 🙂 i on the other hand, enjoy reading any form of magazine while waiting for the doctor to see me.. 😀

  11. I’m not sure if I like the poem or the picture the best, they both are good in their own way 🙂 Oh what the heck, I like the poem the best… probably because of the carpet, it looks like the same carpet we had at work for the longest (8 years or so). They finally changed it a couple of weeks ago, to something brown and different I suppose… Oh well, back to your picture… It is a typical situation in a waiting room as more than one have said, and it is well composed and sharp, luckily the feet where sockless as more than one have mentioned… socks and sandals doesn’t go together.Oh and one more thing, your comment box is kinda small… 😉

  12. Does everyone have to comment with some sort of complaint?? SHEESH What happened to just being nice without being critical?? This so looks like a typical docs office. The dread….the waiting….the wondering why everyone else is there….the are they looking at me whole thing. Awesome shot!! And the comment box scrolls so get over it already!!

  13. lol sorry Elainecommotion, i didn’t know that comment was so important to you, i only deleted it coz i didn’t want people to think it was ME giving them heck lol

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