::01:11:08::

::: Visit to Grandma :::

The picture is sharp, it won’t leave my head.
Of Hannelore lying on a hospital bed
with glassy eyes and alien nose
her delirium acute or maybe confused.
Unintelligible words drip from her mouth
and the small, distorted body contracts
in excruciating pain
after having nearly drank herself to death
and she does not know that I am there.
I love you I call out yet
at the same time afraid to hold
her bloody HIV infected hands.
She moans and cries in response
and I think for sure she will die here on this hospital bed
with the tubes running in and out of every crevice
and the imagined, hallucinated “get well” decorations
from her five grandchildren hanging on the walls.

Written by: ~ Merav Tassa