Stethoscope

"the stillness"
    ~Emily Dickinson

My own goodbye
is a silent prayer
offered between
the counting

Two minutes
is a long time listening
for a heart
with no more to say

Last night
she was singing
the last bed
of the shift

My ears
play tricks
the seconds softer
than silence

Busied hands
the family
squaring the spines
of paperbacks

Stacked and still
unread to the ends
where the last
blank pages stare

Two minutes
just enough
time to make tea
turn down the bed

Listen
to a troubled
heart


Written with Brendan Bonsack

Copyright Kathryn Ross and Brendan Bonsack   August 2016