"Tiny Waiting Room" by Jennifer Back

waiting in the hospital

where they showed the history channel on repeat

and I brought a loaf of sourdough bread and a jar of Nutella

maybe it was french bread

anyway

I remember hours and hours

and hours and hours

silence then hope then laughter then fear

worry

seeing the other patients come and go, finished

for what they had come for and yet

for days

there was just gossip and sadness

sitting outside to get some air bringing food nobody would eat

feelings like porcelain teacups

rattling in our seats

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Jennifer Back was born and raised in LA, and is extremely proud of being a bona fide “valley girl”. She has wanted to be a writer since she was a child and this is her first poetry publication.