Hematology
by sam sax
while he lives
here’s a list
of images
light in a filthy glass
pigeon dead on the high spiked window
clear plastic bag above him full of water if water could kill everything that lives in you & it can —
i sit in a corner of the cancer ward
fingering the app that shows me
other faggots in this hospital
chat with one
i might meet in radiology
but don’t instead
make the sick man laugh
while he’s conscious
compliment his gown
his new brutal cheekbones
that appeared with the chemo
if only it were simple as a magnet
sucking the bad metals out of him
if only i could make a better list
more magic less language
periphrastic & restorative
if only i met that stranger
in the basement
& our pleasure rose
through the hospital
bliss poultice
for the sorrow-skinned who sit
half-conscious & half-machinery
while the sick man lives
all i can do is recount
the vast pastoral of his illness
when he is gone i’m counting
on all the good flooding back
his beard
a collapsed country
i’ll refuge inside
his laugh
a memory
so liquid
i’ll hear it
when anyone
opens a window
to scare the birds
Source: Poetry (June 2016)
Most Poetry will post a poem by a LGBTQ+ poet, selected by our members, each day through the month of August.