My husband lies on an elevated bed 
while a technician dips her wand 
into slippery gel to glide across 
his chest. The room is dark and only 

a monitor registers a river of light 
that glows red, blue, and yellow. Inside 
my husband’s heart there’s a temple. 
He grows silent at its opened door. 

The stillness around us sails 
into blue skies, interrupted only 
by the monitor’s whoosh and burp. 

We say nothing in the examining room. 
Instead, we look inside what’s to come, 
one leaving, the other leaving later. 

Dianna Henning

taught through CPITS (California Poets in the Schools); received several CAC (California Arts Council) grants; taught poetry workshops through the William James Association’s Prison Arts Program, including Folsom Prison; and has run The Thompson Peak Writers’ Workshop in Lassen County. She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College (Montpelier, 1989) and is a six-time Pushcart nominee.

Her publications include, in part: Artemis Journal (2021 and 2022), MacQueen’s Quinterly; Memoir Magazine; New American Writing; Pacific Poetry; The Adirondack Review; The Plague Papers, edited by Robbi Nester; and Worth More Standing: Poets and Activists Pay Homage to Trees (Caitlin Press, 2022). Her fourth poetry book, Camaraderie of the Marvelous, was published by Kelsay Books in 2021.

Author’s website: https://diannahenning.com/