Blueprint of the Waiting Room

I’ve been remodeling
                                                    my brain
     constructing a new wing
                                                                 for worry

my son’s snarled nest
                            of unpredictable tangles demands
a large parcel of real estate
                                                        in both our skulls

     while radiation 
                                                            hopes to choke
blood vessel by errant blood vessel
                                          my maternal hemispheres
expand two stories
                                                         spiral staircased
floor-to-ceiling medical library
                                      with a sliding ladder on rails

soundproof walls absorb
                                            anguish & night terrors
no space for windows
                                                          light can enter
     only    through the keyhole
                                     in the massive oak door
its key too heavy to carry

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Kelly Cressio-Moeller is a poet and visual artist. Her poetry has appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Gargoyle, Guesthouse, North American Review, Poet Lore, Radar Poetry, Salamander, Southern Humanities Review, THRUSH Poetry Journal, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Water~Stone Review, and ZYZZYVA among others. Her debut collection, Shade of Blue Trees, is forthcoming from Two Sylvias Press in 2021. She is an associate editor at Glass Lyre Press.

Art: Molly Dunham