I Know a Place

the ward is stamped white a fidelity to fading, sometimes in a smear of shadows in her corner, Lilly sits wheelchair bound her white hair falling like her winks at strangers John's arrival cuts solitude raises Lily's soft shell of aging their homage to love like Billboard vows interlocked fingers that bind intimacy till close knit words trail to song his voice dusky washing over Lily like cologne Broadway tunes "the sun'll come out tomorrow bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there'll be sun" his affecting gush of song ushers remembrance caught in the tucked curl of her smile stoic remarkable peeling back impairment outside this place of pleading outside what recedes to hollow sands of life sifted into this short hour place of togetherness as they want it to be one soul into another Poem written June 6, 2023