Hospital in Time of Covid

Sara Backer
| poetry

 

Ice on my stomach wounds,
a heavy cough blanket over the ice—
a kind of tough-love sandwich.

In this cold dry room, I can only move
my head and toes. I pretend to paint
brush strokes with my eyes. This night

I watch a helicopter land
between red lights on the roof
and I become afraid.

I shut my eyes and see
that I painted a black hen
in furious snow.

Sara Backer’s first book of poetry, Such Luck, follows two chapbooks: Scavenger Hunt, and Bicycle Lotus, which won the Turtle Island Chapbook Award. Recent publications include Lake Effect, Slant, CutBank Online, Poetry Northwest, Poetry Ireland, and Kenyon Review. She lives in New Hampshire and reads for The Maine Review.

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