Poetry Issue #17: Free November 1, 2025 Two Poems by Elizabeth Ambos Your Care of Me is Much Appreciated You talked me into this nursing home place. Didn’t want to be safe but you made me safe. Did you think being spoon-fed by strangers wouldn’t make me pitiful powerless? Bed linen all smooth white right tight. Mighty kind of you. Didn’t ask for any of this. Yes there’s a window yes I can see snow on gray parked cars but no birds no blue ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #17: Free November 1, 2025 Three Poems by Shanan Ballam Carrying my Pre-Stroke Self Terrified to lose her, I haul my old self on my back for three whole years. She used to whisper go, go, go! But then she was suddenly silent. Like Orpheus I didn’t want to look for fear she would disappear. I carried her through damp dark, past trees spooked blue. I hauled her through the inky river. When I could no longer touch the silky silt with my feet, her weight nearly dragged me under. I gulped for air, kicked madly with my one good leg. She ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #17: Free November 1, 2025 Wissahickon Creek by Michael Sanders Wissahickon Creek First the fear of falling. Then the names forgotten. Near the end My father’s mind like a shorting motor arcing and sparking. When once an ancient blunder suddenly recalled could make him snap His fingers in anguish, now, for a term, he lives a life which endlessly reinvents itself, Nothing remembered, every second new, alien, unrecognizable. He battles it awhile with baffled grace, greets as best he can The unknown interns, the offspring, the woman ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Two Poems by Susan Shea Helping Me Into the Newness When we thought it was just a cold, before anyone knew there was such a thing as COVID pushing its way into the world, my coughing sent my man out of the room; but my little beast Max evolved from feline to angel saint. He couldn’t look away from my gasps, laying by my side all night, looking at me, letting his eyes carry the warmth ...
Read MoreEditorial Issue #16: Harmony April 30, 2025 Letter from the Poetry Editor: From the Side of A Mountain by Stephen Granzyk hen 2025 comes to a close, it will mark seven years PSM has been up and running, and by then I will have turned 80. Along with the privilege and great rewards of editing poetry for this literary health care journal, I have been navigating aging and its challenges. After reading all the poetry that ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Three Poems by Joe Bisicchia day-to-day operations if only the stock the blood the labs the sterilization the discharge the surveys the personalized health record the clinical outcomes the meaningful use we never forget if only in the middle of the critical integration amidst all the clinical navigation quality control everything clinical clinical the critical is critical if only the mergers and acquisitions the financial the daily realization we come to our census we shall meet the need if only to remember the soul the soul the soul the soul the healing the dignity of all ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Two Poems by Victoria Mack We Run Like Trees After Danez Smith Dream mountains—blue, purple, gray. Green valley, copper sky, white sun. All the sick girls are here. Boys too. But not as ghosts. Not shadows. No one lurks, haunts. We’re real. Thick. Bright, with neon outlines. Bright as Times Square. No fog. No mist to swallow our heads whole. Here, we keep our heads. Our brains are fast as trains. And yes, some have their chairs still. We know ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Two Poems by Shawn Aveningo-Sanders After His Second Nephrectomy Is my hospital gown tied in the back? Why can't I pee anymore? I take my time tying the cotton strings while I try to figure out how to answer the second question. There you go, Dad; we don’t want you flashing those pretty nurses. After the deluge of scans, lab tests, signed DNRs & consent forms, how did ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Night of the Gorillas by Bart Edelman Night of the Gorillas You wouldn’t have known; After all, how could you? But, then, there they stood, Shoulder to massive shoulder, Staring back at you for recognition. However, the fear was so great, You simply collapsed and sobbed. One by one they approached— Somewhat cautiously, at first— Trying to decide what to do. They knew you were troubled, And communicated back and forth. A few wanted to handle you, Cast their arms around ...
Read MorePoetry Issue #16: What If? April 30, 2025 Three Poems by Joe Cottonwood Biopsy While sedated on gurney I forget to breathe. Nurse (tiny woman) shouts, “Breathe, dammit!” so I do. I pay attention to women. Another nurse (burly, male) apologizes for shaving my chest hair. I understand men. A voice from somewhere asks me to choose music for the room—Beethoven or Mozart? I say, “Bluegrass.” Voice asks, “Huh?” Dosed with fentanyl, mind detached, I follow my body into an extraction factory— fingers, scalpels, giant needles, a sharp and delicate ballet to ...
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