Foley Cathether

I clean its latex length
              With kindliest touch,
    Swipe an alcohol swatch

From the tender skin at the tip of him
              Down the lumen
    To the drainage bag I change

Each day and flush with vinegar.
              When I vowed for worse
    Unwitting did I wed this

Something-other-than-a-husband, jumble
             Of exposed plumbing
    And euphemism. Fumble

I through my nurse's functions, upended
              From the spare bed
    By his every midnight sound.

Unsought inside our grand domestic
              Intimacy
    Another intimacy

Opens -- ruthless and indecent, consuming
              All our hiddenmosts.
    In a body, immodest

Such hunger we sometimes call tumor
              In a marriage
    It's cherish. From the Latin for cost.

Kimberly Johnson, published in Poem-a-Day on January 15, 2020,
by the Academy of American Poets.