This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 17, 2012 - Some of the best odes celebrate the ordinary, unlikely, and overlooked. Here’s a particularly unlikely ode by Janice N. Harrington, who also added an extra turn at the end.
Janice N. Harrington
ODE TO THE BEDPAN
Consider the arching hips, the buttocks
squeezed, thrust upward and then pressed
to that metal lip, almost sexually. Consider
the bedpan — shit bucket, night bowl, hat —
its adaptable demeanor: saddled, slipper-shaped,
sloped, enameled, plastic, antique porcelain,
disposable, yellow to match the pitcher
and the plastic glass, spoon-colored or blue,
the faithful servant who bears away the human
ordure, its stench and its dye-free tissues. Feel
its patience. A bedpan waits more placidly
than a woman curbing her dog. Washed out,
it is used again. How many buttocks and thighs
has a bedpan cradled? How many beds has it sat upon?
The warmth of a bedpan forgotten beneath
a sleeping rump. The floor-jarring percussion
of a bedpan dropped on the night shift. Consider
its calm, its kindness, really, that a bedpan accepts
these urges, spillings, the bowel’s complaining
and the voweled protest. It does the job
assigned to it. Thigh, buttock, hip, the hand
that takes it away, embarrassment —
it is all the same. Shame — yes — but
that too is easily sluiced, nothing that anyone
should keep or have to sleep with. Bedpans
do not judge us. They are a measure
of humility, a scoop, a shovel, a gutter,
a necessary plumbing, the celebrant of hierarchy
and the social order, pleased to be lifted
by darker hands paid the minimum wage.
Recipient of a 2007 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Poetry, Janice N. Harrington is the author of two books of poetry as well as children's fiction. Her latest book, which includes “Ode to the Bedpan,” is titled The Hands of Strangers: Poems from the Nursing Home (BOA Editions, 2011).To learn more about River Styx, click here. Richard Newman, River Styx editor for 18 years, is the author of two full-length poetry collections, "Borrowed Towns" and "Domestic Fugues." He also co-directs the River Styx at Tavern of Fine Arts reading series.