The doctor with green eyes dispenses dead medicine
from a magic vial.
After he leaves my mother rasps
Bring my rosary.
One Hail Mary is as good as another.
Camphor, eucalyptus,
the shhhhh and click
of the machine in her room
is more theater than cure.
Tea is a superstition
that soothes the dragons
of pneumonia and fear.
My sister pours.
Bergamot and steam ghost the kitchen with luxurious guilt.
She folds the linen napkins.
Tulips speckle silk edges
like bits of red candy.
Outside, winter is Moby Dick
taking us down
to the bottom floor of Thursday,
and except for gravity,
we lose faith in science.
My father works late on icy roads,
his truck lights in snow are blind glory.
We watch a bluejay
watch from its branch
its mate in a claw.
The owl shadow-swift and tremendously gone.

Lenny DellaRocca is founder and co-publisher of South Florida Poetry Journal – SoFlo-PoJo. His latest collection is Festival of Dangerous Ideas (Unsolicited Press, 2019). His chapbook, Things I See in the Fire won the Yellow Jacket Chapbook Contest.