poem “Know When to Play it Safe”, a poem written on National Insurance Awareness Day, about thinking you do not need health insurance because you never use it, but less than a year after someone convinces you to get health insurance someone crashes into your parked car and you almost die, so there are time when you desperately need health insurance - if you are not at fault, trust me, someone else will be, so cover your bases, By Chicago Poet Janet Kuypers

[the Writing of Kuypers] [JanetKuypers.com] [Bio] [Poems] [Prose]

See YouTube video in 2 parts on 9/28/19 of Janet Kuypers reading her poetry at the Poetry Aloud open mic. In part 1, she read her poem “Such a Surreal Ephemeral Feel” from her poetry book “(pheromones) haiku, Instagram, Twitter, and poetry”, then her Twitter Verse Periodic Table poem “Rhodium’s Flava Flav” (#45, Rh), then her poem "“Feeling of False Ownership” for Juneteenth from her poetry collection book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)”. In part 2, she read her poem “Just the Right Words” from her poetry book “(pheromones) haiku, Instagram, Twitter, and poetry” then her Twitter Verse Periodic Table poem “Ruthenium for Free” (#44, Ru), then her poem “Know When to Play it Safe” for National Insurance Awareness Day from her poetry collection book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)” as the last poem of the book, all to a live audience at the Georgetown Public Library (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera); this video was posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram & Tumblr.

See YouTube video in 2 parts on 9/28/19 of Janet Kuypers reading her poetry at the Poetry Aloud open mic. In part 1, she read her poem “Such a Surreal Ephemeral Feel” from her poetry book “(pheromones) haiku, Instagram, Twitter, and poetry”, then her Twitter Verse Periodic Table poem “Rhodium’s Flava Flav” (#45, Rh), then her poem "“Feeling of False Ownership” for Juneteenth from her poetry collection book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)”. In part 2, she read her poem “Just the Right Words” from her poetry book “(pheromones) haiku, Instagram, Twitter, and poetry” then her Twitter Verse Periodic Table poem “Ruthenium for Free” (#44, Ru), then her poem “Know When to Play it Safe” for National Insurance Awareness Day from her poetry collection book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)” as the last poem of the book, all to a live audience at the Georgetown Public Library (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix T56 camera); this video was posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram & Tumblr.

Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her Down in the Dirt 9-12/23 book “Instant Karma” book poems “Know When to Play it Safe” (which is also in the book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)”) & “Who I Was Supposed to Be (dreams 10/31/19)” during her “Poetic License 4/7/24 global open mic” through a Zoom meeting and a Facebook event page (video filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Link ed in, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
You can also enjoy this as a Facebook live video stream that was filmed & streamed from a Samsung S9 camera with a Charcoal filter; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Link ed in, Instagram, and Tumblr. #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperspoeticlicense

Know When to Play it Safe
Janet Kuypers
6/28/19, on National
Insurance Awareness Day
After working in corporate America for years,
I decided, what they hey, I’ve saved a lot of dough
after living in a big city; I can act like one of those
trust fund brats and quit my job to take a year off
to travel. And after I got my travel plans in order
and I quit my job, I then thought, wait a minute, I
never use my health insurance, I mean, sure, by law
I had to get car insurance, but why am I paying for
health insurance if I never use it? And that is when
my travel friend said to me, “no, you better get it —
you have no idea what will happen, so just get it.”
And this was coming from someone who as a rule
got into car accidents every month, but that’s not me,
I am miss sane. Miss responsible. Nothing happens to me.
But after I grumbled a little, I took their advice,
so I paid for health insurance that I never used
while driving around the United States by car.
And it was after I was back in town, driving to visit
my parents, stopped at an intersection, that
a car, speeding and texting on a 55 mile per hour
road, slammed my stopped car into oncoming traffic,
where another car hit me. There were skid marks
from my tires for one hundred and eight feet...
and I’m sorry, but all of the details from that day are
all eye-witness accounts from others there, because
I remember nothing from that day. I wasn’t breathing.
My skull was broken in three places. I was almost dead.
Good thing the hospital I was born in was only two
miles away on the same road, so they didn’t wait
twenty minutes before a helicopter would come to
“expedite” my emergency room arrival. They were
busy trying to save me, so they didn’t know my purse
fell under the car seat, and they had no idea who I was.
Searching with my car VIN number, they called my mother,
asked if she knew someone matching my description, and
asked if she could come to the hospital to identify a body.
Yes, those were their exact words to my mother.
After my mother and father were there, the hospital
then asked if they knew if I had any health insurance,
because, after seeing the dire state I was in, they
didn’t know if I should remain there or be shipped
over to Cook County for care. My parents had no idea,
so in a panic my father wrote out a huge check
(he’d worry about how to pay for it later) to make sure
I got the best health care I could at that very moment.
Well, they eventually found my purse (though the
people at the hospital didn’t return my bra with the rest
of my clothing, it’s good to know that objectification
even applies to the comatose, how comforting, sexism
exists even if you’re almost dead)... and while I was
recovering they also discovered my health insurance,
the same stuff I seriously swore I didn’t need, the stuff
that now would cover not only my dad’s fevered check
to save me, but also all the physical paying to save me.
Sure, we could all sound trite and find it wasteful to pay
for something we think we’ll never use, but all I can say
is oh, thank heaven I had it on that one fateful day.
Of all the days in the world you think will never happen,
even when you’re the sane one, the responsible one, you’ll
never know. Your only fault may be that you cannot speak
for the rest of the world. So right now, take a deep breath
and feel comfortable that now you’re playing it safe.

my hand to an anim of jkchair