Sibling

Across the waiting room next to a big black
coffin-shaped Coke machine
in a little alcove sits a family
whose severely palsied child has
flu. Behind them, a tract rack says
“Levine Children’s Hosptal”

The woman wearing a painter’s cap with a green bill
and a long drab pony tail
is called over to intake desk re: insurance.
She wheels the little guy maybe 8 years old
who, non-verbal, understands things
and is crosseyed and communicates through
grunts and moans.

Then returning to the alcove where the other
son or who knows daughter waits, maybe 10,
with blond straight hair to the ears, Mom
explains this insurance thing quietly
to the other child,
who nods.