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  • Watching the Pulse
  • David Faldet (bio)

I am watching the pulse beat in her neck. I am watching her chest rise and fall. I am watching symmetrical beads of sweat grow on her lip, her brow. Watching her eyes dilate and grow glassy. Listening to her scream, “Fur!! It’s all fur!!” Her voice rasps the paint from the hospital ceiling, rattles the teeth in my clenched jaw, and draws the oxygen from the room. “A tiger!” Another scream. “Stop it!! The fur!!” Her breaths now coming fast, her hands tremble like scattering roaches.

please God protect her please God do not take her please God break through the fur that chokes her heart please pulse pulse pulse please God enter into her brain and chase the tiger out [End Page 122]

David Faldet

David Faldet is the author of Oneota Flow (University of Iowa Press, 2009). His poetry has appeared in Mid-American Review and Rocky Mountain Review. He lives in Decorah, Iowa and teaches a range of courses as Professor of English at Luther College. faldetda@luther.edu

Copyright © 2013 The Johns Hopkins University Press
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