by Greg Keeler
waiting for an hour alone
in the white room
naked from the waist down
clean flesh on clean sheets
polished steel and rubber tubes
behind reminiscences
of alcibiades on his*
lopping spree (would bogart
do this) and the doctor
in his cowboy boots
(did you hear the one
about the steer)
when wife had first child
she stood outside herself
listened to a distant scream
but this is different
even in the local numbness
my feet and neck converge
with the lifting of the cords
then fall back with the cutting
exhausted and sweating
I view my progeny
two segments like macaroni
stuck to the steel tray
*Alcibiades: A Greek who ran
around knocking the penises
off of statues.
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Greg Keeler is Professor Emeritus of English at Montana State University. He received his M.A. from Oklahoma State University and his D.A. from Idaho State University. His areas of specialization are in the writing of poetry and fiction and in contemporary literature. He has published three books and numerous poetry collections and chapbooks. He has also had six stage plays produced, produced ten tapes and CDs of his satirical songs, and published many articles in popular and academic magazines and journals. His acrylic paintings have been exhibited the M.S.U. Library and in galleries in and around Bozeman. He illustrated Jim Harrison's chapbook, Livingston Suite. In 2001 he received the Montana Governor's Award in the Humanities.
"Vasectomy" was published in Keeler's 1987 collection American Falls.