Amy Riddell

The faraway clinic

for the terminally ill
is a long

long way
away where

destiny
is a destination

with valet parking
and Chihuly

chandeliers
no detour

for what ails
us

instead
an interstate

road trip
there and back again

and again
with suitcases

and a packed
lunch

my husband’s hands
on the wheel   

his chemo port
an open eye

bandaged
beneath his shirt

beside him
me

squinting
into

every kind
of weather

the horizon
a false promise

no long
view

his life
already a car

wrecked
in a ditch

our hope
threading

and rethreading
the needle

of denial
            the two

of us
chasing

a miracle
no surgeon

could ever
stitch

Amy Riddell is the author of Bullets in the Jewelry Box (FutureCycle Press 2012) and a chapbook Narcissistic Injury (Pudding House, 2009). Her work has appeared in such journals as Prairie Schooner, Black Warrior Review, and Birmingham Poetry Review.