Her 1st thought on arrival was she wouldn’t be staying.
Now on the 4th day of her 3rd month she is comfortable
putting her tongue on the window and licking it clean.
On warm afternoons her attendant rolls her steel chair into
the courtyard and leaves her to pull strings on her robe and
measure distant objects between her finger and thumb.
In her room she knows there are 132 tiles on the floor,
1 picture of Jesus and 43 sheep she counts over and over
to help fall asleep.
Before she eats dinner a nurse gives her 10 pills.
She swallows them 1 at a time, then sucks her wrist
as she tallies green peas that roll around her plate.
The chaplain visits her room to read words from the Bible.
She adds up the numbers for chapter and verse, then counts
7 puffs of light as they circle the room and fly out the window.
