photo: ralph murre
A Shift of Emphasis
by Mary Jo
Balistreri
I
With dawn’s
arrival, the desert landscape stretches,
its hot breath
stifling as a closed attic. The cacti
in their
wisdom have already licked the moisture
from the
night. Wind whistles hot and hoarse,
while time
hangs thirsty in the sky. A dark speck
hovers in the
high washed air, watches and waits.
The desert,
alive with light, sighs in silence.
II
The IV pole
stands alone, arms lifted
as if in
prayer, life-giving like the saguaro.
Light jumps
and gutters, glints off hard metal
edges, brushes
the sterile room in Arizona
I sit here
beside you, my mind lost among
the burnt
sienna canyons, caught in the burrs
and brambles
of fear, dizzy with the sheer drop
should I step
too close to the edge.
Your strangled
breath startles both of us.
You wake,
washed blue eyes confused. I touch
your cheek,
run my hand over your seamed
and tired
face. You cross your hands over your heart.
III
The chrysalis
jumps in the palm of my hand,
a tiny heart
beating life in its brown shell.
Outside the
window, a leaf lifts in the breeze.
Dreams lap
behind your closed lids. I see your mouth
move, bend
down close to hear you say,
How
beautiful, your mother.
Blue wonder smiles
across your
face. You are a young man in love
and time stands
still.
~ first
published in Healing Muse
