At the MRI Waiting Room

A husband, arms folded,
bright orange shirt, white and
black sneakers tapping like
Fred Astaire tap-dancing,
except his stare under
the high bald shining
forehead un-focuses,
shares the leatherette
sofa with wife. She, pale
ankles in black flats, arms
folded, eyes fixed ahead
at air circulating
at a temperature
to comfort seniors,
metabolism dwindling
in waiting rooms, like school
children over-scheduled
for play groups. Their voices
rasp, they cough discreetly
into fists, patient patients
having entered this waiting
room after three days of
sunshine. March having rushed
in like a lion roaring
atmospheric rivers,
today’s frolicking,
California clouds
wooly as lambs, sun
clarified buttery.
He asks, “What time is it?”
“Eight after two,” she says,
checking her watch where no one
exits for the MRI
tunnel with a watch. Why
is he tapping sneakers
like Astaire who’d tap-danced
across Hollywood into
the heart of this wild West?
Why am I here? I don’t
ask what time it is. Waiting
is not what I do well,
device-less, watch-less, no
newspapers, no local magazines.
The technician appears,
tells him to follow through
the door, down the walkway.
There are the MRI rooms,
she gestures, red-haired Styx
freeing him from waiting.
Leaving me waiting.

Shirley G. Lim (PhD, Brandeis University)’s recent publications include poems in the Hudson Review and Feminist Studies, and a chapter in Good Eats (NYU Press). Awards include the UCSB Research Lectureship, Multiethnic Literatures of the United States (MELUS), and Feminist Press Lifetime Achievement awards. Visiting professorships include those at MIT; NUS; National Sun Yat-sen University; and the English Chair Professor at Hong Kong University. Lim is a recipient of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and two American Book Awards. Lim has a published memoir, Among the White Moon Faces; twelve poetry collections, recently including Dawns Tomorrow; three novels; the Shirley Lim Collection; three story collections; two critical studies; and about a dozen edited/co-edited anthologies and journal special issues.