extreme unction

anoint the sick, the cancer sick, the sick and tired.

anoint the sick of heart, the sick joke, the sick of-this-place.

anoint the sick of industry of politics and the call-in-sick.

anoint the sick in-the-head, the sick bastard and the bone-marrow sick.

anoint the sick voodoo of Church and the sick sonofabitch across the street

who mows his driveway and who knows to what end?

anoint the sick old-timer in 906 who's never been seen

and never been heard, save for the scuttlebutt of the hallways.

anoint the intestinal sick and the sick of the here-and-now and lastly,

anoint the anointer of the sick to be anointed.