Patricia Jabbeh Wesley: This Worn-Out Hospital Gown

Some woman passed through this gown.

Some woman’s spirit slipped on.

Some woman’s heart, crying out in pain,

                   cried all night,

and then she too was gone.

Some other woman slipped out of it,

returned home, and helped change

the way cancer eats away a cell from itself.


And some woman survived because

that woman slipped away from this gown

now draped around me,

        and because of her,

they found a way.

Now, another woman, me,


who will never meet those women,

those brave women, and yet,

                   because of them,

here I am, walking out of this gown

like all the other women survivors,
        

me, walking free from the monster.

             and the spirits of those sisters

gone, also walking away,

but as for them, they took flight

on the strength of wings, leaving

me all that hope

            that now carries me every day.

Copyright 2022 Patricia Jabbeh Wesley

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley is a survivor of the Liberian Civil War who now lives in Pennsylvania. Her many books include Praise Song for My Children: New and Selected Poems (Autumn House, 2020).