Jim Ross
It doesn’t have to be big to be terrifying
Sometimes the pain ebbs enough that her dark eyelids engage.
The nurse reminds me to eat. I won’t be told twice.
I walk past the award winning salad bar to carbs in white sauces
piled on white plates and bought
at the parent’s discount.
I sit alone, not making eye contact, I breathe myself to not crying.
If you cry people look away and that means they saw you.
There are no words to fix anything
so eat, smother the heart in carbs in white sauces.
Eat everything to quiet.
After, I can face her when she wakes,
tell her so we can believe it
that everything
is going to be fine.
Everything is going to be fine.
Cara L. McKee (she/her) lives on the west coast of Scotland and gets to work in a village library. Her poetry has been published in places like Ink Sweat and Tears, The Hysteria Collective, and Poetry Scotland, and her chapbook, First Kiss(Maytree Press) is available from her website: https://skeletonarchitecture.blogspot.com. Twitter @caralmckee.
Jim Ross jumped into creative pursuits in 2015 after rewarding research career. With a graduate degree from Howard University, in seven years he’s published nonfiction, fiction, poetry, photography, hybrid, and plays in over 175 journals on five continents. Photo publications include Barren, Burningword, Camas, DASH, Kestrel, Litro, Feral, Stonecoast, Sweet, and Typehouse. Jim and his wife split time between city and mountains.