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Our cat lies next to me,

seven stitches in his side.

 

Something stirs in the attic.

 

I take my antibiotics with white wine–

so civilized to feel crystal on the lips.

 

Bare branches scratch against the sky.

Even two sweaters don’t warm me.

 

Old uncle is dying in the hospital.

 

Try not to think of the thing

that moves in darkness.

 

I go from room to room

turning on lights.

 

I wait for the call.

 

 

 

Patricia L. Scruggs is a member of The Los Angeles Poets and Writers Collective. She is the author of Forget the Moon (2015). Her poems have appeared in publications such as ONTHEBUS, Spillway, RATTLE, Calyx, Cultural Weekly and Lummox, as well as the anthologies 13 Los Angeles Poets, So Luminous the Wildflowers, Beyond the Lyric Moment. A retired high school art teacher, Patricia lives in Southern California with her husband of over sixty years.