Noemi Martinez
Passage of Time in Hospitals
This black grackle sings
to me through torn window
screens while dew
from the morning
still waits on grass.
It pecks at worms and ants
nodding as it eyes
me. Were your cousins
able to see me
through screens, too
the times I
peered out at night,
searched for signs?
I would scan and analyze
trees and wet leaves,
how they move and sway-
unbroken.
In Houston hospital rooms
the grillos sang at odd
hours on some winter
nights. Scientists
tell us they
don't sing during winter
storms, rainy seasons, but
this rebel serenades me
as proof that men in white coats
are often wrong.