Jodi Balas

Vein

She nearly missed it         by she, I mean “I”
by it, I mean “the ground.”
Everything turned hospital white
before I fell forward, bleach-faced
and hot as hell.   Not pre-menopause hot but post
surgery hot, like in 2004 when I ossified
in the intensive care unit for weeks,
my spine sterile—mechanical. Late January,
and all the windows to the room wide open.
Not one bird came to visit either, or cared
to rest their feet on the fringe.  
                       Each morning, I watched my veins swell
like young rivers, carriers of new life    and the morphine
drip was eventually swapped for resolve.
I came to—with a surge of smelling salts
and light.    The phlebotomist sat me up
and handed me a kid’s size box of orange juice,
saying “that could’ve been messy.”
When I say, I could be a mother, I don’t mean
metaphorically, I mean how mercy can be passed 
on or through—as an extension, 
as in one body to another.

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Jodi Balas is a neurodivergent poet from Northeast Pennsylvania. Her poetry has appeared in Painted Bride Quarterly, Bluestem, The McNeese Review, Pinch, Sugar House Review and elsewhere. Jodi’s poem, “Bone Density,” won the 2023 Comstock Review Poetry Prize judged by Danusha Lameris. She is in the process of developing her first chapbook to market to the poetry world. You could follow her musings on Instagram @jodibalas_