Caroline Pittman
Readmission to the Children’s Hospital
We go up in the elevator
with the giant dahlia
on the door, the one
we came down in
this morning toward
our car. I sip a styrofoam
cup beside the bed
and watch sparrows
caper on the helipad
through unopenable
windows. I think of
Demeter in winter
while Persephone
pays Hades in months
of her year, the zinnias
frosted, the maples slick,
the unfragrant sleet, the lost
season, but their pomegranate
was a merciful fruit,
exacting only a stint,
a limited visit. I want
to collar the oncology fellow
to quarter one and give us
the pieces, each bloody seed
numbered, each imbedded tear
another gone from a palm-
sized allocation, and
circumscribed by a unified,
sunrise-colored rind.
I can’t grasp myths
of abundance anymore,
a daughter returned
for certain, summer
after summer.
Caroline Pittman was born in Mississippi, grew up in Alabama, and is now raising her 4 children in Atlanta. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Witness, Crab Orchard Review, Poetry Northwest, and elsewhere.
Return to January 2019 Edition
We go up in the elevator
with the giant dahlia
on the door, the one
we came down in
this morning toward
our car. I sip a styrofoam
cup beside the bed
and watch sparrows
caper on the helipad
through unopenable
windows. I think of
Demeter in winter
while Persephone
pays Hades in months
of her year, the zinnias
frosted, the maples slick,
the unfragrant sleet, the lost
season, but their pomegranate
was a merciful fruit,
exacting only a stint,
a limited visit. I want
to collar the oncology fellow
to quarter one and give us
the pieces, each bloody seed
numbered, each imbedded tear
another gone from a palm-
sized allocation, and
circumscribed by a unified,
sunrise-colored rind.
I can’t grasp myths
of abundance anymore,
a daughter returned
for certain, summer
after summer.
Caroline Pittman was born in Mississippi, grew up in Alabama, and is now raising her 4 children in Atlanta. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Witness, Crab Orchard Review, Poetry Northwest, and elsewhere.
Return to January 2019 Edition