Margaret Alice (The Crystal Age / Pretoria - South Africa)

Installed next to your bed with Nici and
the fairies to keep magic vigil, the big bay
windows aglow with silver and dove-grey
clouds almost purpled against a sapphire
sun-drenched sky

Machines flash sentinel duties above your
head, webs of tubes and cords writhe from
them, measuring, monitoring your every
breath, feeding oxygen, sugar, colourless
fluids and morphine

into drips attached to your wrist, already
black and blue from frequent piercing,
you sleep breathing deeply after everyone
came to say hello, your guardian angel
Nici holding you softly, shaking her head

at me and my fairies – I know she’s
the main fairy to visit you…