Arlene Naganawa
At the Children’s Hospital
The zones are named Ocean, Mountain,
River. Post-surgery: Forest. Elevator: Deer.
She cries for water, a sip of ice. Needles,
tubes. Please, morphine. Please, a cracker.
The gift shop sells balloons. Unicorn,
cloud. Get well soon. She can’t read—she’s two.
I lift the bear cub-printed gown–
catheter filling. Sutures I can’t see.
A preschooler in a wheelchair spins
in the elevator. I ride down a floor
in Frog. Soft belly. Skin like powder.
Morphine bolus, please.
Arlene Naganawa’s full-length collection, I Weave a Nest of Foil, was published in 2024 by Kelson Books. Her chapbooks include Private Graveyard (Gribble Press), The Scarecrow Bride (Red Bird Chapbooks), The Ark and the Bear (Floating Bridge Press) and We Were Talking About When We Had Bodies (Ravenna Press).