The Ekphrastic Review
  • Ekphrastic Journal
  • About
  • Give
    • Merch
  • Book Shelf
    • Ekphrastic Book Shelf
    • Contributors' Book Shelf
  • Ebooks
  • Submit
  • Prizes
  • Ekphrastic Writing Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • TERcets Podcast
  • Writers
  • Contact

Watch Hour, by Charlotte Hughes

10/7/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Persistence of Memory, by Salvador Dali (Spain) 1931.

Watch Hour

Dear / me dear / old me dear / Iowa hospital room / I left a / 
piece of myself still / attached / to the plastic IV / bag /
sucking salt sodium chloride / up my veins / As I rambled /
through the halls imagining my / cot ride
not as chore or /
weakness but /
langor / The perks of paying top dollar 500 / a
night / for my very own room with a TV and
graham /
crackers
/ Whatʻs funny is how experiences put things into /
perspective / Itʻs not funny just /
morbid / So ergo an hour /
before the
ER / visit there was a / class discussion I wasnʻt /
paying / attention to instead wondering
what / the / painting /
that people make phone case notebooks of / was / the one
 
with / a watch melting like butter over a / bedside table
and / its twin / hanging over a branch / laundry set out to dry / 

and / then I was cold / not poetic / but I said that my / bones /
were dry / ice and coursing through / them the veins was liquid
nitrogen / I didnʻt know / two hours later I would be    pancaked /
across a cotton / cot like the watch in Daliʻs painting /
The
Persistence of Me
/ except this time this   watchʻs time was /
ticking as the / EMTs measured the coughs   rasps / of beats and
stuck / electrodes on the melting / butter / pale skin of my
abdomen / silver IVs up my forearm / minute hands / I promise /
I promised my dad on / the phone / en route to the Iowa hospital
that I was / OK / fine / great / good but / you donʻt know you
were near death until youʻre not /  Watches hang from trees like
/ fruit / until / theyʻre on your father's wrist /


Charlotte Hughes

Charlotte Hughes is a high school junior in Columbia, South Carolina. She has attended the Iowa Young Writerʻs Studio, is an editor for Polyphony Lit and The Haloscope Review, and is the editor-in-chief of The Palette. You can find her poems in The Louisville Review and Duck Lake Journal.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    The Ekphrastic Review
    Picture

    ​​Find a writer, artist, or poem, etc. by searching here:
    PLEASE SUPPORT US
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture



    ​
    ​Archives
    ​

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Lorette C. Luzajic theekphrasticreview@gmail.com 

  • Ekphrastic Journal
  • About
  • Give
    • Merch
  • Book Shelf
    • Ekphrastic Book Shelf
    • Contributors' Book Shelf
  • Ebooks
  • Submit
  • Prizes
  • Ekphrastic Writing Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • TERcets Podcast
  • Writers
  • Contact