Waiting
(for Keith)
I am where I hoped to never be,
a room where we all end up
with puzzles unfinished that anyone
can add a piece to when passing
through, with magazines
of good advice for the perfect life
no one ever has stacked neatly
in wooden racks. The walls
are painted in a safe earth tone.
Taupe is very popular in oncology.
Landscape prints of places perfect
for picnics or the loss of virginity
adorn the walls, along with framed
photos of founders and philanthropists.
I can find brochures of any disease
to ignore the one I have.
A vase of cut roses stands on a table
centered around a few empty chairs.
They are the most beautiful of flowers
right before they die.
• • •
Jim McGarrah is the author of ten books. His latest collection of Poems A Balancing Act was published by Lamar University Press in 2018 and his latest nonfiction book Misdemeanor Outlaw was published in 2017 by Blue Heron Book Works. McGarrah’s poems and essays have appeared most recently in the American Journal of Poetry, Bayou Magazine, Cincinnati Review, and North American Review among others.