……….Hello? Is there anybody in there?
……….Just nod if you can hear me.
……….Is there anyone at home?
…………..Comfortably Numb
…………..Pink Floyd

He lay on his side
like a wounded animal
eyes open
toward the window,
the morphine drip

pulsing through him, the morning
light becoming

a thick sponge
soaking up his breath—

until the last
angle of sunlight
remained buoyant
in the air.

His bed a slackline
where he lay balancing,
arms folded, moving
into shadow,

could he see the dry leaved
trees through the window and how
they flushed through the snow?

Michele has been published in A River City Poets Anthology, MCV Literary Messenger, VerseWrights and The Bezine. She taught Reading and ESL to elementary school students and lives in Richmond, Va. She can be found on the tennis courts or teaching yoga when she isn’t writing.