Jim Ross
Upright
I sat behind the lawyer while you signed away
your portion. The legal cavalcade—
briefcases, notary’s seal, the hospice aide
conscripted as second witness. You remember the deed;
you brushed your fingers across its stiff paper,
insisting on blue-black ink for the signature lines.
And don’t worry about that aide; we’ve brought
doughnuts for the night staff. They’re ready
for tonight: clogged streets, snow plows stalled—
exhausted elephants. The cook reappears in the unlit
parking lot, snow pants shedding ice,
a soup-pot from home braced against her hip.
For the families, at midnight. Of those upright on a couch,
in the blue-white light of the coffee maker,
staring at the courtyard’s pine sapling:
the wind punches it to ground and the tree springs up,
all night to the end.
M.J. Turner’s poems have appeared in the Lily Poetry Review, SWWIM Every Day, Nixes Mate, Spillway and other publications. She lives in Massachusetts.
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.