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more bloody hands and dirty shirts have passed through
the automatic glass doors in the past two hours I have spent
here.
In hospitals time is measured in Iv bags, morphine in-
jections, nurses and chaplins. In latex gloves and discarded
paper gowns. I don’t feel alone here. We are all waiting,
biding our time, resting. When my mother grabs my hot
hand and pulls a chair next to my bed I want to say: don’t
wait up for me. but she does, and I watch the doctors race
by my open door.
This is where she waits. In the basement of the county
medical center, on a blue chair with wooden armrests. The
daughter. Idly flipping through the Parenting magazine,
pretending to read the article on good nutrition for chil-
dren. step #3 – provide your kids with healthy snacks. she
hears the nurse at the desk describing something to a con-
fused young man.
“do you have a lab request from the doctor?” The man
rifles through his leather briefcase and produces a folded
piece of paper. The woman behind the desk hands him a
sterile sealed container and a clear plastic bag printed with
a large biohazard sign. god forbid these possibly contami-
nated, mutated, alien particles escape.
This is where she waits. In a blue, worn wheelchair,
spray painted with the letters of the medical center. The
mother. The loose skin of her arms sags over the arm rests.
a nurse appears through the large white door with a clip-
board and calls a name. The mother attempts to rise from
her chair until the daughter looks up. “Mom,” she says to
her back. “Mom, that’s not you.” The mother settles un-
 blue moon
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