be harder on yourself
in the mirror of my vanity
everything loses its skin
like gold light
tightly tucked between
white sheets
with hospital corners
and the blue of your pajamas
against the gray of your face
against the green tiles
of the bathroom floor
and the red and white ambulance
i weep
until the vicodin kicks in
your open palm across my cheek
my spinning of nouns into verbs
the way in which the two
are connected
does it mean anything
because
my body feels like
science fiction
squeezing into vacant hearts
soft as eyelids
i wrap myself around a tree trunk
to dance the poison out
Joan Cappello’s work has appeared in: Persimmon Tree, 2 Horatio and Posit: A Literary Journal. Her chapbook, why i travel alone, was released by Finishing Line Press in December, 2019.