A strange bed—broad as a field—
white knots in the bedspread
catch your tiny fists. Four
posts, lithe as trees, rise to the ceiling.
Everything is outlined in blue—
Furniture heavy as the air,
dark, black, crackling with light
around the edges—gold man
on a brown cross. You’re wrapped
in an odor of lavender and your lungs
fight for air, screaming at nothing.
White hair. A blue dress that crinkles
as she bends over you—a hot, scented hand
on your forehead—her head is enormous—
Lips purse. Her white halo shakes.
A thin blanket drops on your hot body.
—Your favorite, she says. Sleep, she says.
You scream until you can’t breathe.
Sobs slip into whimpers. A door
closes, air is lighter but still hot.
You roll across the bedspread
kicking away your blanket
and breathe into sleep.

# # #

Mark J. Mitchell studied writing at UC Santa Cruz under Raymond Carver, George Hitchcock and Barbara Hull. His work has appeared in various periodicals over the last thirty five years, as well as the anthologies Good Poems, American Places, Hunger Enough, Retail Woes and Line Drives. It has also been nominated for both Pushcart Prizes and The Best of the Net. He is the author of two full-length collections, Lent 1999 (Leaf Garden Press) and Soren Kierkegaard Witnesses an Execution (Local Gems) as well as two chapbooks, Three Visitors (Negative Capability Press) and Artifacts and Relics, (Folded Word). His novel, Knight Prisoner, is available from Vagabondage Press and two more novels are forthcoming: A Book of Lost Songs (Wild Child Publishing) and The Magic War (Loose Leaves). He lives in San Francisco with his wife, the documentarian and filmmaker Joan Juster where he makes a living showing people pretty things in his city.

Photo credit:  Terri Malone