Ron Charach

Years later as Mindy began to unravel, and rolled on the hospital floor when she failed to get her way, her second drink of lye impressing not one soul in her exhausted family, they all agreed to plug her into the wall when the fourth and final round of pills failed to work. Wheel her back when you're finished, head turned over on its side so she can't breathe her vomit, meaning no aspiration.

But when her eyes unsealed in the white tiled room, and she hoarsely called for water, she recognized my role in this, my professional ring through the plastic. She may have seen a liar straining to escape from my face, because instead of asking about her husband and the kids, and who knew, and did everybody know, instead, she turned her electric breath on me. Automatically, I told her, “Shhh, It's okay now…” but she looked me up and down and said, “This is the most serious moment of our lives.”

Ron Charach was born in Winnipeg, Canada. He studied medicine in Toronto and trained in psychiatry in New York. He has lived in Toronto since 1980. The two poems are from Selected Portraits. Hamilton, Wolsak & Wynn Publishers.

Poem selected by Femi Oyebode.