Seth Rosenbloom
Seth Rosenbloom is a poet and consultant to companies on leadership and management. His poems have appeared in ONE ART, CutBank Online, Hawai’i Pacific Review, The Main Street Rag, and other publications. Seth was born in Washington DC, and he lives in Seattle.
Each Step a Vital Sign
I watch the nurse
unwrap the IV lines,
the large gauge needle
shiny in a plastic tray.
Her body is calm
at the far end of science.
Does she think
about her hands?
Or the first time
her index finger
found a vein?
I want to tell her,
I have son. I love him
terribly. That I have worked
and I have saved.
My body tentative
in the gown. The truth
of the surgical lights.
A sine wave pulsates
across the monitor.
I watch the nurse,
reassurance is a pressure
on my forearm. The air
cold on this side of the cannula.
She moves her hands.
And today gallops
beyond the drip chamber,
warm and radiant.
Sheila-Na-Gig online 