The Pill Effect

I told the doctor

that the pills weren’t working,

I did not wake

in a pool of my own vomit.

He laughed.

He said the pill effect

was subtle.

I thought about that.

Is it not love, then…

even if your heart doesn’t

beat itself

out

of your

chest?..

even if it feels more like a relaxed

sigh?..

even if it comes and goes, over forty years

and turns into an occasional,

for no reason,

smile?