Home from the Hospital

In my absence, one sprig of English ivy

has crept through a crack

under my window.

Its rough speared leaves

once vigorous, now brittle as ash.

I don’t know how it 

found its way under the glass

to curl on the wooden ledge,

but welcome it as my guest,

smelling its cedar cousin

on the outdoor vine, 

the contorted straw filaments

draped across the sun-warmed sill.

I reach out with my left hand,

wanting to feel the waxed green,

then draw all of it to my tongue.

Judith Harris is the author of three books of poetry, The Bad Secret and Atonement (LSU), Night Garden (Tiger Bark), and Signifying Pain: Constructing and Healing the Self through Writing (SUNY Press). Read more.


“Home from the Hospital” originally appeared in Image Magazine.

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