Epilogue: Perfect Ankles
By: Jehangir Saleh
Written: March 1, 2010

morning feels slippery
ward is quiet
while the hospital teeters on the edge
outside you imagine it’s raining
oceans forming in the cracks of the sidewalk
parked cars like strange, beached mechanical whales
waiting for the sun

a plastic cup
forms a womb from which you sip
while you watch the mound of your wife’s body
blended into the bed sheets
only holes remain where the wires had been (?)
her breathing was an organic radio wave
that you had access to
until a machine replaced her lungs
sickness destroying everything
except her feet

now you watch the natural geometry
of her perfect ankles

imagine
her arms around you
like the national flag
of a war torn country

touch the last light of her hair
a final (solemn) gesture in a time of war

when she said
i love you
she really meant that
you reminded her of her intrinsic capacity
for discovering all that she had been searching for

when you say
i love you
you really mean
what I have been searching for
is you