P O E T S ON THE LINE
a continuing anthologyFounded by Andrew Gettler & Linda Lerner
NO. 9 & 10 T H E M I L L E N N I U M I S S U E
Edited by Linda Lerner
PATRICIA FAREWELL
The Return
The hospital is bright with sterile doctors,
instruments on wheels and metal tables.
The orderlies that swab the corridors
will not reveal the room my body's in.
I've offered them my gun and poison pills,
I've swished and swayed as if the night were young.
Where has the pail of floating organs gone?
I pull the chain again but no one comes;
I call and call remove this needle now,
remove the black tubes, Ivs, twisted sheets.
My chart's erased, my slippers have been taken
down. That basement's full of bones and gowns.
The nurse who said I'll fix your hair, I will,
refused my kiss and quit, a bandage on
the arm I bit. Where is she now? I'm back
to place these pearls around her lovely neck.
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