� copyright All Rights Reserved Wilson, Richard S.

" I wake to find her sitting by my bed ... I can still smile, amused, when I remember how I surprised her when I kissed her face."

Jessica Powers

I embrace the anonymity of hospitals,
the blur of numbers, sheets, and faces.

I embrace the endless drone at
the nurses station, the muzak of charts
flapping, phones ringing, rattle of the med cart.

I embrace the ice floe of shadows
outside my door, the comfortable
glow of the T.V.

I embrace the impersonal monologues
of the physicians, charting diagnosis
in coughs and averted eyes.

I embrace the BDU'ed nurses,
I embrace their military efficency

I embrace the wheel chairs & gurneys
cruising the brightly colored corridors
like metallic fish in a bowl

I embrace passing time with my fellow patients,
amidst small, private caches of food,
qet-well cards, day old flowers
all the usual kickshaws of the sick.

I embrace the narcotic nightmare
of my life, Demerol dreams.

She embraces my skinny waist
certain as a monk's cincture.
Her lips, a hardened
scar;
her fever-breath whispers:
"Ashes, Ashes,
We all fall down."