Lupus Trilogy
By: Golan Shahar, Ph.D.
The Guide
Neither a pet nor a threat,
this wolf, a guiding dog
through all her I-don’t-cares
and the city’s thinning fog.
No pity, no summons to rise.
Wolf heads where attention waits.
Depleted, begging for cries,
she follows. Authenticates.
In the hospital, Dr. SLEDAI
is showing her tricks to transcend
the rushes, the swelling, the dry—
a mouth that cannot comprehend.
The Pride
Back home, in the dusk-lit yard
her girl unspools the day:
-- “Tommy kicked me after lunch”
-- “I hope you’ve kicked him back”
Uneducational.
Still, the wolf arches an eyebrow,
a quiet yes.
“Come in, let’s make dinner.
Daddy will be starving.
Aren’t you?”
“Do I get ice cream later?”
“We’ll see how your body feels.”
The wolf is drooling,
waiting for scraps.
The Tide
Girl got her ice cream.
Her guy,
previously busy wolfing down
burger, potatoes and coke,
is pouring the merlot.
Even the wolf is full.
Almost.
It paces, impatient for them
to go upstairs,
ready to howl
to cover the action.
The tide is turning.
Joints, swollen or not,
are devoured.
Her mouth now comprehends.
Golan Shahar is a Professor of Clinical–Health Psychology at Ben-Gurion University and Adjunct Professor at Yale University School of Medicine. His work bridges clinical and health psychology, psychoanalytic and existential theory, and poetic narrative. He has published extensively on depression and suicide, chronic illness, and stress, and has authored two books. His poetry, written both in English and in Hebrew, explores subjective, health-related experience, psychological suffering and resilience, and the interface between persons and their social environment, particularly in the context of health and medicine.
