Trust the Hours - Karen Wang

after Galway Kinnell

Wait, for now. Though each day seems a tunnel like the last, remember that this, too, will pass. Maybe you stare at your sixth ECG tracing today and wonder if anyone can see the heaviness in your own chest. But they have their own pains to notice. They have other reasons to lose their breath. Maybe they come with other wounds that need stitching. Maybe you tell them some wounds need to close on their own; the inflammation has already come. Sometimes you cannot force two sides together, no matter how smooth the memory of skin. Days become mere motions. The world seems no more than a discord of hospital alarms and beeping monitors. Another code white sounds. Another wrist fractures. Another baby is born. The world moves on when you are not ready. You do not have to move on. You do not have to move. You just have to wait. Time will do the moving If you only trust the hours.