Issue 9 Poetry
I Held Her Hand
The emergency department, a bustling fray,
Trucks backed up in the ambulance bay.
A mother and child, full of fear,
Scared of needles, lots of tears.
So much the child couldn’t understand,
I took a moment. I held her hand.
Haiku for Weight Loss
Twelve ounces coffee
with skim milk, not whole, then walk
forty minutes flat
Car Ride Fades to Black
Our radio wouldn’t dare blast through my father’s orations;
he’d tote his small son on drug rep calls, navigate back roads, the ultimate detail man.
Between Worlds
I watch my mom for signs she’s going to be leaving me soon, even as she’s still here. She looks more fragile. A little more lost. Is she?
and the other’s gold
Together, we’ll visit our friend
who no longer knows us, and pluck
those pesky little whiskers
off her chin.
Aboard Sirène in the Morning
There’s nothing as beautiful as a marina at dawn
the clacking of ducks
the sky clearing away
the remnants of a storm
Transition States
Transition states not stasis not static
No longer substrate, not yet product
Highest energy on reaction coordinates
Breaking and making covalent bonds
A Radiant Horseshoe
For a DaTscan
to confirm
I have Parkinson’s,
I am injected
with a radioactive tracer.
A Nurse’s Leaving
I will bundle you in blankets and place you
on porches in cure chairs to keep you
Receding
Sometimes forgetting is willful, even hoped for.
How he carried himself as he walked across the yard,
Between one building and the next.
Quadriceps Tear While Carpentering
I pivoted on the balls of my feet,
to not fall off to the left or the right
but to sit me down on the flat part
of the roof.
In the Waiting Room
The man whose wife is having a baby
crouches in his chair like a fetus,
can feel himself kicking.
In the Season of Hospice
Like Aspen leaves adrift on yellowed-cold,
we flutter, down from youth – to frailty.
In the Eyes of a Medical Walker
I plan on getting you around the house
as you hobble from room to room
with your right leg bandaged up
and swollen from a recent surgery.
Heaven, the Land, and Humans in 2023, 2023 天地人, 鍾倫納
Arctic icebergs are breaking up,
Melting Antarctica airport-runways need new sub,
Strong gales have torn apart buildings, Oops:
Flooding also moved houses like floating cups.