1 New Poem

Blood Strength

I watched your life drain
into vials, a red neon shade
coursing through plastic tubing loops;
lab coats and hair nets with Peanuts characters
blocking the view

from where I sat, distant on
uncomfortable plastic, reaching occasional
to give what breath and comfort
hands can manage when they shake
under their own torments.

Under cloud skies from beyond,
the coats try to add everything
as numbers on punch cards,
part of an equation hidden
behind veiled eyeglasses.

It never takes on the full flesh of Spring,
cheek cold dampness of deep winters
with you, in olden times we’d
suffer with our meanings,

now just wait for phone calls,
to read entrails again.