poem
Volume 35, Number 1

The Good Dream

When she gets in the car, she’s groggy.  
She keeps asking how I managed
 
to wake her—as if there was some trick
to it—and we laugh about the spectacle
 
of the hospital gown, its dangling ties,
where do they go and what good
 
are they anyway? We commiserate
about the cold, which was pervasive,
 
and the nurses who surely self-medicate.
We both decide the doctor looked as if 
 
he’d just backed into a hot stove.
It was all over so quickly. She’s going 
 
to be OK,
the doctor said—and then 
seemed insistent—the only moment 
 
that caused pause. As if I’d ever argue 
with good news. She's alive! The sky is blue. 
 
Outside, spring’s bounty. We drive to 7/11 
for Slurpees. We have trampoline feet.


—Kelly Fordon