“A Room Made to Hold a Hospital Bed” by Kathleen Carlton Johnson

The patient, under a staircase,
in the hall.
The nurse is administering Morphine.
Her qualifications available.
on a plastic badge
pinned to her blue uniform.

I read Psalm 139.
Word flags of salvation,
all present, standing at attention.

The daughter’s false eyelashes,
decorating a plain face.
Slim and tattooed, 
Walked me to the door.

The air thin, quiet, growing distant.
settled on a blue clapboard house
The porch light breathing
like a pulse.

Artist Statement

All art is a communication.  When seen or heard by others reverberates what is already known as a universal sound. 

Kathleen Carlton Johnson is both a visual artist and a poet.  Her work has appeared in Clockhouse, Rattle, Phoebe, Arboreal Lit, UP Reader, and poems appear in Yooper Poetry, the William and Mary Review, and others. She is the author of Roots in Water: Selected and New Poems, Modern History Press, 2024. She lives on the cusp of Lake Superior.