American poetry in life

A child with a sense of the dramatic … well, many of us have been that child. Here’s Carrie Shipers of Missouri reminiscing about how she once wished for a dramatic rescue by screaming ambulance, only to find she was really longing for the comfort of her mother’s hands.

Medical History

I wanted it: arc of red and blue

strobing my skin, sirens singing

my praises, the cinching embrace

of the cot as the ambulance

slammed shut and steered away.

More than needle-pierce

or dragging blade, I wanted the swab

of alcohol and cotton, the promise

of gauze-covered cure.

My mother saved anyone

who asked, but never me,

never the way I wanted:

her palms skimming my limbs

for injury, her fingers finding

what hurt, her lips whispering,

I got here just in time.