By Adina Kopinsky
Ice room, ice veins, ice
in the cranberry juice the nurse hands me,
her manicure a violent
variety of tulip, like the purple vein
spreading through the crease of my elbow.
We huddle—each couple
in the waiting room wounded white-necked
cranes; indistinct conversation takes the tempo
of birds in flight, words and laughter punctured
by silence—
each woman’s arm extends
towards the drip pole, each gauze wrapped hand
feels only the hospital air
numb beneath her outstretched arm.
Adina Kopinsky is an emerging poet living in Israel with her husband and three sons. She has work published or forthcoming in PANK Magazine, Crannog, SWWIM Every Day, and Glass: A Journal of Poetry, among other publications.
Art by Michelle Johnsen, art editor
Michelle Johnsen is a nature and portrait photographer in Lancaster, PA, as well as an amateur herbalist and naturalist. Her work has been featured by It’s Modern Art, Susquehanna Style magazine, Permaculture Activist magazine, EcoWatch.com, EarthFirst! Journal, Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, and used as album art for Grandma Shake!, Anna & Elizabeth, and Liz Fulmer Music. Michelle’s photos have also been stolen by AP, weather.com, The Daily Mail, and Lancaster Newspapers. You can contact her at mjphoto717 [at] gmail.com.