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Bryan Cook

Tagged

Remember that chintzy sunburst wall sculpture fad of the early 1970s? I decide to weld one in the garage. Oxyacetylene torch melting dozens of fluxed brazing rods into a glowing golden pool.

Feeling a little dizzy and nauseated, I check into the poison control centre at the local hospital. Diagnosis, acute fluoride poisoning. Oxygen, I.V. and some pills. I pass out and the porter wheels me away.

Twelve hours later, my wife, worried about no news, telephones the hospital.

“Sorry Missus, we have no record of your husband.”

“Well, he’s there for sure, so I am driving out to look for him.”

A frantic search and I’m found, still out cold, on a gurney, tagged and sheeted in a remote corridor beside the janitor’s storeroom. 

At least the tag wasn’t on my toe!

house clearing
our ornaments unloved
on thrift store shelves

About the Author

Bryan Cook is an alumnus of Sheffield and McGill Universities and retired from directing Canada’s energy science and technology. He now pursues interests in Canadian history, genealogy and genetics, fishing, gardening, poetry, and fine woodworking. Bryan is mentored through Ottawa’s TREE Reading Series and the KaDo Haiku and Tanka Society. He won the 2019 Genjuan Haibun international competition.

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