THE FEVER ROOM: CHANG CHUN
CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL, 1991

Beside our daughter

all night

Tan Yi and I hold tiny arms steady

to keep the IV’s in—

her head a solar bench.

I think about the bed across

from ours, the infant

with fever for a week

going beyond heat, beyond

sleep, tumbling

from her mother's lap

into the easy breeze

of space

then the young mother,

bosom still happy with milk,

rolling the body

to the foot of the bed,

then looking back

and gazing

at the ring of sweat.