The wife plays nurse Nightingale while her husband...

convalescences in sickbay
from irritable bowel syndrome,
the Flip (Wilson) side of constipation,
a disorder of the lower gastrointestinal (GI) tract,
which includes the small intestine
and large intestine (colon)
essentially a problem
with how the intestines function,
causing symptoms like abdominal cramping,
bloating, and changes in bowel habits

Any room in our
one bedroom apartment accessed
as my place of bedrest
which might find me seated
upon the commode

or lying supine on the Lazy boy
E-Z chair fully dressed
defies mine surly sour grapes
physical state where diarrhea doth erode
as if I swallowed Liquid Plumber
and complete rectal purging finessed
prior to the wife going to sleep,
she prepared me soup to goad

to withhold urge
to defecate impossible mission
I feel hard-pressed

to impose restraint
against the trademark symptom
of gaseousness finding me shell shocked
and ready to implode

laughter the best medicine,
thus yours truly doth jest

cause almost forty years shigella
contracted at July fourth Rainbow
family gathering he knowed

quite well, cuz no sooner
did sphincter muscles spasmodically
contract and expand in tandem
with anus expelled lest

I attempt to stand up
from hole in the ground
which grass grew hardy
and warrants being mowed

quite frequently hopefully
not disrupting any wild animal nest

and to think that some areas
within the webbed wide world
still lack proper sanitation,

where modern plumbing outmode

did courtesy primitive privy,
a breeding ground for
more than one disease causing pest,

now not deceived courtesy
paved yellow brick road

criss crossed with military tanks
heavily armored, tracked combat vehicles
designed for front-line warfare,
equipped with powerful guns
for direct fire
and machine guns manned
by a small number of soldiers
squabble over a spit
of land for defense cannot rest

in peace until no fighter left standing.