Suzanne S. Rancourt, Abenaki/Huron descent, is a multi-modal artist with degrees in psychology and creative writing. Her book, Billboard in the Clouds, Curbstone Press / 2nd print at NU Press, received the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas First Book Award. Her 2nd, murmurs at the gate, 2019, Unsolicited Press. She is a Veteran. www.expressive-arts.com
sleepy eyelid – sky
prepares for nightfall with
a crescent moon wink
there is a conductor orchestrating
with one palm up, the other down
weighing the balance of sound, lights
stage and curtain calls
anesthetic drawdown – count backwards
a dragline slowed by weeds or
a mother stumbled
by children clinging to legs
something is cyclical in suffering
as my thick digits ‘round the corner of beads –
when my thumb and fore finger clamp and unclamp
IV tubing administering liquid mercy
your ventilator as metronome
carries us both through a day of possibilities
the homestretch, we are both gambling
on some kind of transfiguration
to carry us home to an isolation
both cavernous and cramped anachronistically
there is something about this being with self
that makes me keep talking to you
while I bathe you, check your vitals,
thump your back, listen to your lungs
my stethoscope
our Rosary