Recuperation
My room has become my hospital room.
My only visitors are the cats.
They come in one at a time.
None of them stay too long.
All day, my nurse, my green tree
Flutters its balinesque hands
In the motions of a sophisticated dance.
It stands up straight.
Underneath, are the brown bones of twigs.
It shows me what has to be done.
—Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
—found in Granite Lady (1974)