Silently Waiting

Driving at one in the morning, I look up to see Venus, bright at first, then dim as thin clouds pass before her. I think to write a poem about this as I sit in the waiting room of the ER with nothing more than my phone. As I compose an email to myself, my thoughts are pulled away from planets and stars by the replay of a basketball game from the previous day. The room remains nearly empty, no more than a patient at a time entering or leaving the room, leaving me the lone planet filling the space. But my mind keeps going back to the game, and it works its way into my poem.

Concerns for the wounded are allayed, and it’s time to head home. At three in the morning, the moon sits high in the sky, hazy but unwilling to let the…