Day 2 in Hospital

In a plastic bag
Moist warmth of caring
Here is the toiletry kit for you
I heard the nurse.


With moist gauze
I wiped my
Forehead
Neck and
Cheeks.


I wiped around my eyes
And woke up fully to hear
A door bang
Siren wail
Gurneys roll
Shallow breath, short breath, rapid breath.


My heart on an EKG
Since last night
Monitored once,
Twice and many more times.
My pulse pounding.


My heartbeat speaks for
My voiceless body.
What do you want to tell me?
Listening hard to the whisper of heart
I couldn’t hear the words.


In the Afternoon
Mother and
My two sisters came.


Mom
In tears


I
Am
Sorry.
I wish I could heal myself.
I wish I were not beaten down like this.


With the right hand spared for now,
I stroked my mother.
Mom stroked my immobilized legs
Over and over.


In the same way
She stroked me when I was a child
Either when I got a 33 or a 5 on an exam
She stroked me gently
With the same hands.


Inari sushi and Tamagoyaki eggs
My sister made
So delish for
Our picnic in the hospital room.


The glow of the sunset,
The melody of a children’s song
Playing in the evening air
Signaled the end of our picnic.


Left by myself
On bed
Sweaty
I was made aware again
That I would not walk again, ever.


Poem by Maria Franki
Edited and translatec by J. Ujiie