Monitors
By Amy Allen
There’s an implied understanding
in the family lounge
at the children’s hospital
that we will discuss
the persistent light rainfall
or the questionable sushi
from the deli downstairs.
in the family lounge
at the children’s hospital
that we will discuss
the persistent light rainfall
or the questionable sushi
from the deli downstairs.
Making conversation like actors
in an extended improv where we play people
who bumped into one another
on the stained couches
of a car-service lounge
or shifting in metal folding chairs
in the back of a sticky school gymnasium
awaiting the orchestra concert’s first note.
Our stiff limbs reveal the toll
of nights spent curled into vinyl chairs
eyes alert at every beep
watching intently for the rise
and fall of chests under blankets.
Our hearts can’t bear to feel anything
for fear of feeling everything
so we smile meekly
lament the weak coffee
and resume our synchronous
solitary vigils.
Amy Allen studied English literature with a focus in creative writing as an undergraduate at Skidmore College, and was lucky enough to participate in a fiction writing workshop as part of her coursework for a PhD in English literature from Drew University. Additionally, she has taken part in the Green Mountain Writers Conference led by Yvonne Daley, as well as Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Erice, Sicily. She lives in Rutland, Vermont, with her family and perpetually starving chocolate lab, where she owns a freelance writing/editing business called All of the Write Words.