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Everyday Care

PCA: personal care assistant

When the latest PCA discovers
wet towels in the washer, a baguette
inside its paper sleeve on the parquet
and cat pee in the foyer, she hovers
beside the leather club chair where a man’s
torso slouches in a woolen topcoat
buttoned up tightly to a shaven throat;
overloaded her brain tumbles and spins.

Bracing one hip against an armrest, she reads
his pallid skin, open mouth, widened eyes,
extends a slender hand and caresses
a tuft of gray across his cool forehead,
as if comforting a child, then at once
recovers her preconditioned balance.

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David Ram retired from teaching community college and lives in western Massachusetts.

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2 Responses

  1. Paul A. Freeman

    I love this snapshot of life, where, even though momentarily, human feelings for the individual overwhelm the ‘preconditioned balance’ of a care worker’s remit. You paint a very vivid picture, David.

    Thanks for the read.

    Reply
  2. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Fortunate person to have such tender care. Thank you for the providing the PCA note. I did not know what it stood for otherwise.

    Reply

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