Waiting Room

1.

Layers of acceptance
of resignation
of horror
of there but for the grace of some capricious god ...
of graceless pain and despair
of gradients of hope
vibrate through boring beige papered walls

a phone rings

Green faded carpet
worn runway of pacers
worry's weight heavy on neck and shoulders
everyone strains to glimpse mercy

a phone rings

2.

A father and three daughters huddle
around a corner table
the blond-haired girl holds a helium balloon
in the shape of a leviathan
Get Whale Soon lettered on its green fin

They hover before the surgical monitor
look for MUH-2018-9714
eleven characters that spell
the mother of my children

I stare at the monitor's
biblically multicolored codes
check for MUH-2018-9729
cypher for the one I live for

a phone rings and rings