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Like that day in February—crisp, sharp cloudless
it’s like that today when winter refuses to fade.
The sheets over and under you, creaseless like the sky.
I bend over your hospital bed, release the railing between us
in silence we call mercy into the room.
Copyright © 2022 by Maria Lisella. Reprinted with the permission of the poet.
Buon giorno, buen dia Maria
Full of grace and wisdom and power
The Lord may be with thee, and you
May be Blessed among women but
What about the children? Not the one
In the womb that has been consecrated
As the son of God, but God, your god,
My god has many sons, daughters all
You could not have been happier,
not a dancer, but did a jig in our courtyard
to the sweet streams of doo wop.
The innocent harmony of the Deltones,
and in 40 days you’d be staring at a ceiling
in an Emergency Room at Mt. Sinai Hospital.
This could be just like that …
You let me, your stepmother,
Take your hand to walk
into the surf, let
slippery seaweed wrap
around your ankles
like emerald ribbons.
We step on the edge
of lacey waves that feel
like butter on hot skin.