WATCHING FORREST GUMP WITH MY WIFE
A week after she’s had major surgery
and still needs pain pills
which the doctors never
provide enough of
we distract ourselves
with old movies, good and bad
this one a mix of both
then Forrest utters his famous line
“Life was like a box of chocolates
you never know what you’re gonna get”
and my wife says
“Is it time for my pain medicine yet?”
and I say “Life is like a box of narcotics
you never know how good you’re gonna feel”
and as I go for the bottle, simultaneously
shaking out and counting the remainder
worried they won’t last
worried about how I’ll score more
she laughs, which hurts her incisions
then sits up in her recliner
and says “Sweetie
give me my fucking medicine.”
Dave Newman is the author of eleven books, including Dope and Vodka and Cigarettes, and Not Shaving Her Legs (Roadside, 2026), Better Than the Best American Poetry (Roadside Press, 2025), and the essay collection How to Live Like Li Po in Pittsburgh (J.New Book, 2023). He lives in Trafford, PA, the last town in the Electric Valley.
