The World Self-Admits to Hospice by Laura Ann Reed

The World Self-Admits to Hospice

I’ll get right to the point, World.
Not like when I visited my dad
in the ICU, pretending it wasn’t the end.
I’ve learned your condition is terminal.
And as my father’s doctor said of him,
a walking time bomb,
the pathogenic processes are multiplying.

Of all your offspring, I know I’ve most
contributed to your undoing.
Most failed to appreciate the sacrifices
you made. The fish worship your rivers
more than I ever did. Daily, the birds
offer up their feathered prayers to your skies.
Even the earthworm invites you
into its sanctum sanctorum, making of itself
a place of praise.

None of your other progeny turns
a deaf ear to your green call, heeding
instead the silvered summons of the mirror.

And if some wonder drug were to restore
you to your former glory, I can’t
honestly claim I’d do things differently
than I did. Yet, I have loved you,
and desperately, in my way.

*

Laura Ann Reed is the author of the chapbook Homage to Kafka (Poetry Box, 2025). Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous journals, as well as in nine anthologies including Poetry of Presence II (Grayson Books, 2023) and The Wonder of Small Things (Storey Publishing 2023). Reed holds master’s degrees in clinical psychology and performing arts. lauraannreed.net