This piece is about space and speed. Within the almost unbearable confinement of the corridors, we have a sense of motion in the figures of the nurses, their hips splayed out, creating a curve that offsets the straight lines of the bed rails, the wall railings and baseboards. While the two female nurses appear in motion, the three men seem in prayer, eyes cast down. Only the central figure, the man in the bed, is permitted color—the rose sheets and the indigo gown tenderly tucked around him. An oxygen tank attached to the foot of the bed is the only vertical gesture in this picture of tranquility and motion.
2. Crematorium, Mexico City
June, 2020
Vertical orange pipes intersect with
a horizontal titian desk in an altar
composition both emphatic and dynamic.
The axis of a neon helmet hanging
from a valve directs the viewer to the fluorescent heart
of the largest of four Christ figures.
All seven crucifixes angle towards
the Blessed Virgin, placed tenderly mid-altar.
The bagged body on a cart to the right
of the composition leads the eye
to one of the central figures in this piece:
an empty chair adorned with a peeling
coca cola sticker, its red
echoing the color of Christ’s gown.
Ann Quinn’s chapbook Final Deployment, waspublished by Finishing Line Press (2018), and her compilation of teaching ideas and resulting poems, Poetry is Life, is available from Yellow Arrow Publishing. Her poetry has appeared in Poet Lore, Potomac Review, Little Patuxent Review, and Broadkill Review. Ann holds an MFA from Pacific Lutheran University, is poetry editor for Yellow Arrow Journal, and lives in Catonsville, Maryland. Visit www.annquinn.net
I went to uncle’s house after the funeral — the house was filled with water. I couldn’t see my legs once I entered. People stood on chairs to breathe. Children on their swim rings to stay alive. Every
