For Carole 

I. 
Fingers  
shake  
like whipped  
wind. 
Hands don’t  
work. 
Lift a glass  
of water.  
Falls  
on the  
floor.  

I’m 
a broken  
elevator.  
Staircase without  
stairs. 
Cannot  
play  
violin. Strings  
disappear.  

II. 
Women’s  
crooked legs, 
broken  
puppets.  
Contorted  
mouths. Fingers,  
bent  
icicles.  

The women, 
compassionate  
as nurses  
on a cancer  
ward.  

Understanding  
as a dying  
patient.  

Still  
as a bird’s  
broken  
wing.  

III. 
Who  
am I 
if I cannot  
paint? 
Cannot recognize  
colors?  

An artist  
erased,  
clam without  
a shell,  
closed  
sky.  

IV. 
Prayers  
are what 
I have 
now  
and forest’s beams 
surrounding  
light. 

Pamela Stone Singer has been a poet/teacher with California Poets in the Schools for more than two decades, a coach for Poetry Out Loud, and a humane educator. In 2012 she was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and in 2014 to be Poet Laureate of Sonoma County, California.