In the Catholic Hospital

Andrew Scott

 

Loud speakers whisper love songs

and sad songs.  A woman’s voice

interrupts to say, Let us pray.

She reads a prayer, urges them

 

to thank God and think of Him.

Forgiveness, she says.  Healing.

The woman in room 138

tilts her head on crisp pillows,

 

asks for breath and hands to hold.

Downstairs boys with X-rays

see their insides for the very first time

and the red cafeteria lights

 

of vending machines trace

the contours of a young man’s fingers

as his hands cup his face.

Everyone hears the speaker

 

and glances up, forgets

for one brief moment,

why they are here

in the Catholic hospital.

  

   


Andrew Scott lives and writes in Indianapolis. His stories, essays, author interviews and book reviews have appeared, or will appear, in Esquire, Glimmer Train, Mid-American Review, The Writer's Chronicle, and elsewhere. His story chapbook, Modern Love, was released in 2006. He teaches writing at Ball State University and is finishing a novel. 

 

Return