Visiting Hours

Daniel Khalastchi

for H. N.

 

To be inside the lush

       of life I climb alive a tree

 

           outside the guarded rise

                  of hospital where you receive

 

your treatment. Attached against

       my back I have a crate of caf-

 

           feinated soap and aging

                  pediatric drinks you drink to sink

 

your sweating. The nurses

       tell the officers

 

           that I am not a safety

                  concern but I am still

 

concerned for your bald return

       to safety. In my tree, I eat

 

           peaches from a shelter

                  can I later use to plant

 

with hands around

       my mouth and yell

 

           political obscenities

                  instead of finally crying. You have

 

youth and roaming cancer and I keep

       an articulate distance between

 

           allowing myself to think of that. At your

                  last known apartment, the traffic throbs

 

a swan of ruffled rivalry and everyone forgets

       an election has occurred. If I admit

 

           to you that none of our shared reticules

                  have parachutes that means

 

we’ve given up. Here at last

       is the tidal wave survival

 

           recital we use to prove

                  there’s music. You will accept

 

the invitation because

           there is no other way.

 


Daniel Khalastchi is the author of two books of poetry, most recently Tradition, published by McSweeney's in 2015. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a former fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, he lives in Iowa City and directs the University of Iowa's Magid Center for Undergraduate Writing. He is a founding editor of Rescue Press.