The Hospital Visit

the night before a maze of pain,
next morning she came,
remembering
the horrid call, ringing,
ringing, in her kitchen nook,
him gone to work, little
Mary at kindergarten,
the parochial school in town
so understanding now,
but that phone message, then
the warning, he might
be dead, he might be
gone, his throat
ruptured.

so she rushed off,
her brain whirling, only
one neighbor home to get Mary,
and then the long
night,
doctors stumbling
over words, telling her
everything, telling
her nothing, but
the operation successful,
her legs now took her
to see him, his face
bandaged, his life
support wired up, so
that her man resembled
some monster, an astounding
ligature of pain.