Laura Stickney

The Sun Also Rises 

Through the dusty window, lights

Up the wall at the head of your

Hospital bed. Glints off your 

perfect hair and doesn’t wake you up

At first; you are too busy dreaming

About Spanish bullfights and 

Drinking whiskey at dingy cafes

In the early afternoon. When you 

Finally open your eyes and roll over

Onto your side, all anyone else here can think

About is that boyish, beautiful grin on 

Your handsome face. You look like a cross 

Between a film star and bad news -- everyone says

So. I see you flirting with the other nurses 

And boy, do they love that, they fawn over you 

And your terrible heartbreaker eyes and I bet you

Get some sick thrill out of it, don’t you, when they 

Stroke your hair and spoon you soup and ask how 

You’re feeling today. Seems like I’m the only one 

Who knows you hide booze under your pillow

In an army flask and only ever think about 

Ambulances and sex. You’ve got all the others 

Fooled with that chiseled jaw and those chocolate eyes,

But me, I’m a smart girl and I know trouble when 

I see it. I’d bet anything that someday your

Pearly perfect teeth will all fall out and your mischievous 

Smile will start flaking away in the sun -- 

It won’t be so funny anymore when you’re

Nothing but a sad Old Man 

And The Sea is all you have to keep you company.

But all of us here are so young that I guess I’ll have to 

Be content with just trying not to look at you for now.

Someone in this ward ought to be sensible, after all. 

I get right down to work putting clean sheets

On the empty bed by the window; it happens to be

Next to yours and when I look up, there 

You are beaming at me with that stupid insufferable

Grin and those manly hands. It’s infuriating, and

I try to shoot you the coldest glare I can but you

Just lay there smiling at me, 

As perfect and bright

As the Snows of Kilimanjaro.