The Rescuer

By Penny Nolte

PROMPT—I am grateful for ...

Bathed in my own sweat I am in bed, no in the car

No, in the hospital

lungs rigid, creaking like paper bags

A two-headed nurse is here in sterile starched hats

holding a syringe with a long needle, they tap it, briskly

and want to drive it into my arm

I scream and kick, and claw at that needle

now attached to me with thin tubing

They tie a wooden plank to my arm, to hold it still

They tie my arms to the crib, to hold me

I am caged, alone, bathed by painful light

Betrayed and forgotten by my Mom and my Dad

my brothers and my cat, the fight has left me

winded, I am dizzy, I gulp for air

Then I see her

asleep, in a shiny straight back chair

It’s Mom

She will bring me chocolates

and orange slices and take me home

But first, she will untie me

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Penny Nolte writes of remembered family and places. After a decades-long pause from publishing, her new work is beginning to appear in literary magazines including The Avalon Literary Review, Auroras & Blossoms, Floating Acorn Review, and Dorothy Parker's Ashes. Penny grew up on the shores of Lake Ontario and now makes her home in Vermont.