catapult magazine

After Two Days at the Hospital

by Amy Carpenter-Leugs

With my head
on the fleshy
pillows favored by hotels, knowing you
recover now I remember

you
brother
dragged skinny bones behind
me begging me
to play.  Instead I wrapped my
need in afghans on the blue
chair by the
picture window, picture books
arranged in a fort around me
for the desperate days. 

You were left
handed aloneness and a vast
gray sky.  A boy in seven layers
of T-shirts, the look
on your face like you were in grave
danger of melting into
Wednesday.