Three Nights and a Morning

                                                     In memory of my mother

One

She asks the night 

nurse Anna

about her degree

where she went to college

how she likes medicine.

At the end of the shift

she takes her hand

and tells her thank you

tells her how wonderful 

she has been

tells her that she loves her.

Two

Beneath the surf

of oxygen

and the distant 

spring thunder 

in the hushed

night hospital

we hold hands 

and she whispers 

stories while sinking

and sinking.

Three

Gripping the side rails 

of the motorized bed

she’s walking out

across a rope bridge

above an unseen abyss.

Her tiny skeleton

blooms in the bed.

Her head dipping 

into the next world

then fighting 

its way back.

Morning

Desperate breath hunger

stretches us all

as the inferno 

rises in the east.

Finally the corpse arrives

artist extraordinaire

with her silent genius

for helping the blind

to see what lasts.

Nurse Anna comes in

to offer condolences

and weeps quietly

for my mother

with whom she shared

such tenderness.

I stay alone 

with my mother’s corpse

for several hours.

The construction workers 

on the roof below

take a break.

The room falls silent.

In the window

the sky is cloud-heavy.

I sit still and watch 

as sunlight and time

move quietly onward.

.