Henry Ford Hospital, by Hannah Wagner

Henry Ford Hospital, by Frida Kahlo (Mexico) 1932

Henry Ford Hospital, by Frida Kahlo (Mexico) 1932 

Henry Ford Hospital
outside my window the city goes to sleep
husbands and wives turn their lights out
and let the day go
 
but like the peach to its pit
my flesh still clings
 
let me hold you
 
you’re cold as fresh clay 
burrowed into yourself
dry to the bone
 
moments ago you filled me with life
a market of raisins    prunes      mangos      broccoli
you grew and grew
 
nails on your fingers and toes
a heart b
 
stop
 
then a clank under the kitchen table
hit me like a breeze whipping by
taking everything with it
 
I held the little cashew to my lips
he left a faint taste of licorice 
bitter until the end 
 
my body failed 
carve out the rest of me 
 
this body is a snail
take the shell away
 
reveal me bare
and flaccid ​

Hannah Wagner

Hannah Wagner is a resident of Salem, Massachusetts. She graduated from Salem State University. She is also an actor and can be seen in many productions across the North Shore. Her work has been featured in The Broke Bohemian, Mass Poetry's Poem of the Moment, Door is a Jar, Soundings East, Twyckenham Notes, Still Point Quarterly, Incessant Pipe, Sweet A Literary Confection and others.