Hospital: strange lights

I needed a friend but
I was in the other room
—not just the other room,
another frame
dragging         blue
or brighter blue:           strange lights:

The doctor singing from The Song of Songs
‘in the secret places of the stairs’

Us standing there      in the past
as we were
in life
you turning and turning my coat buttons;

From Little Boat by Jean Valentine. Copyright © 2008 by Jean Valentine. Reprinted with permission of Wesleyan University Press.