Day 18, Poet 18: Janine Joseph

Photo by Jaclyn Heward

New Patient Intake Form
 
In the beginning, there was a window
 
I pried the blinds to make light
of my losses
 
I fished my hands into and shattered
the water
 
What a hook I was
 
doubled in the beginning
 
In the beginning              My mouth
 
and the gasp upon impact
The skull intact
 
and the brain increasing
activity where the neurons
 
didn’t die
 
Slowly I filled the form
 
X
X
X
 
My torso scored in order
of severity
 
only a diagram


Previously published in World Literature Today. 


Janine Joseph is the author of Driving without a License, winner of the Kundiman Poetry Prize. Her libretti for the Houston Grand Opera/HGOco include What Wings They Were, “On This Muddy Water,” and From My Mother's Mother. She is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Oklahoma State University.