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Feeling No Pain
FEBRUARY 1976 JAMES SCHUYLER FEELING NO PAIN Bless the ear doc, the tetracycline and the nameless ear drops: three drops three times a day. A bus comes down Second Avenue and I hear it stereo. Dining with Joe at Duff's last night, I had to keep my head turned, right ear pointed at his gentle murmur. "'Anisette?" the waiter asked me when he brought me coffee. I didn't hear him: he was on my left side where the ear was blocked and ached. An infected ear: the pain, there's nothing like it. You climb walls. Then you climb down, get into bed and try to read. "T guess these medications take time." Is it time for more ear drops, another pill? Not by a long shot. Will I ever sleep again, deep natural sleep? It's five a.m. The coffee drips. Early traffic. It used to bug me. Now it's welcome as a dance by Drigo. I have a hacking morning cough from all those cigarettes I smoked those sleep- less nights. Well, nobody's perfect and I feel no pain.