are you there, mom?

her voice reaches me
an other-worldly echo
my daughter is masked
her eyelids flutter
her fingernails dig into the recliner
bags of fluid hang from an IV pole
a ticking machine will titrate the drips

her veins swabbed and exposed
a cancer junkie waiting
for the needle puncture
that will send lethal drugs coursing
through her surgically-insulted body

I am helpless
sliding into a black hole
the only warning – yield

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About the author
Jo Sutera is published in U.S.1, Kelsey Review, Paterson Literary Review and US1 Worksheets, where her poem, “What Do I Want” had been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She lives in Lawrence, NJ.