Suspended

"I cannot hear my own
voice."

A wild river
rages in my brain,
overflowing boundaries,
where thoughts struggle
to surface as sentences.

An ambulance screams
announces an emergency,
my emergency.

I see a wooden cross
on the wall above the door
as we enter.
I am comforted.

A nurse connects a heart
monitor.  It beeps assurance.
Oh, another cross!

My husband removes my rings.
His lips move silently,
perhaps a prayer.
Thoughts race.
How sick am I --
Our grandchild just born --
Our children so far away --
My elderly mother --
Damn, the new sofa!
I am only fifty-six,
helpless as a clock without hands.

God, my full bladder releases,
the sheet's wet as a baby's diaper.

I am caught in a tangle of time
               Where tic does not move to tock.

(c)Laniere Gresham                   2009

published in Skipping Stones Vol VI