Ellen Glassie
In the hospital, bodies

In the hospital, bodies
All seemed like sheets of paper
Crumpled up. The woman wheeled

By us laid the last moving limb
Of her gaze on us, a sliver
Of accusation. Some forms in beds

Were jumbles, sucked like stars
Into their own gravity. The last
Room before our friend’s,

The man’s arms lay
Senselessly against him
Like a nuded chicken.

And our friend: almost
Unrecognizable,
Although

His slackened face drawn back
Reminded me of nothing
More than angels.

When I moved into the fixed
Trajectory of his eyes, I
Could not tell if I was seen.

Afterwards I held my husband’s
Head. Our tearducts leaked.
Heavy forehead against my shoulderbone.

These things
We have that hold us in
Give up.

[ download an mp3 of the author reading this poem ]

Teeshirts of New York

I.
The long-faced woman with the metaphorical
Long face that her life lengthens,
Ringed on the subway bench by tied plastic bags,

Wears a shirt that reads NEW YORK
Beneath a veering cartoon taxi
And cityscape that dances like the nineties.

Yes, I think. Yes.

II.
In my neighborhood, the immigrant grandma
with the brown flowered skirt stumping
peacefully down the sidewalk towards me

Wears a yellow shirt that reads BE HARD
Below an unintelligible photo.
Her calm face contradicts.

I’m returning from a terrible audition.
Yes, I think.

III.
When I see tourists wearing I HEART NEW YORK
Across that part of their anatomy, I remember
How I once sweated all those elevators

Ascending to the top, the riverview across
Of those recumbent scales and spikes.
Song, let them take it. I’ll stay to wrest out

Whatever jewel escapes
Its taloned grasp.
Yes.

[ download an mp3 of the author reading this poem ]

_ _

(The audio files linked to above may be shared without limitation.)

Ellen Adair Glassie is the author of Curtain Speech (under contract with Pen & Anvil). Her poetry has been published in Clarion, Poetry Northeast, and Cyphers. An actor, she has appeared in numerous professional theatrical productions and films, and on television programs including The Slap, Veep, Nurse Jackie, As the World Turns, and Brotherhood. She lives in New York City.

>> Back to Issue 18, 2015