I remember the soft lights
And the quiet
Combining for the making of a dim room
With the rearrangement of furniture
To make space for a bed

It was cold
Always so unnaturally cold
And the odor
Specific to a place
The closed up smell of an air conditioned house in summer
All stale and faintly medicinal

Babies- we were led in to perform a task that was bigger than us
Please say your piece to a life that is going away
Okay
A slice of time carved out
And then carved straight back into me

Hypnotized in a little girl trance
By the minutes ticking down
And you
You were sunken down in the hospital sheets- white
A ghost already
Gone already

My emergence
Both a beginning and an end
Down, down the dark hallway
I lied
Riding the coattails of my sister
Sliding in
Praying for invisibility
Wondering what is was I was lacking

But it was too late

Now the room is a morgue
And I had one more turn to take
As I bent over you holding back my hair
With both hands
To kiss your forehead
Cold now as the room