It’s quiet here.
No sticky floor squeaking.
Nobody shouting
from across the hall.
Even upward facing
bulbs beam soft light.
No institutional glop either.
You order from a glossy menu
boasting sandwiches made
on artisanal bread.

We spend companionable time.
You wear headphones moaning
part boredom, part pain.
IV bags of clear fluid
a swarm of jellyfish suspended
tangled tentacles dangling drip
ever so
slowly into your veins.
Dad on his computer escapes
into a world of words
and shipments.
And me,
determined to document
then bury this nightmare
so deeply it will never
ever surface,
no matter the Richter magnitude
of the next quake that threatens
to unearth it.

THE HEALING MUSE
Journal of Literary and. Visual Arts/ Vol 22 Number 1-Fall 2022

NOTE: After The Five Star ICU was published, I discovered that a reading of the poem had been featured on a weekly radio program that is affiliated with the journal. The program is called “Health Link On Air”. The poem is read by Deirdre Nielsen PhD., editor of the journal.