A Course of Electro-Convulsive Therapy

The final treatment 

is the only one

she remembers. She fell 

into the anesthetic’s dark 

as deep as any dream of death 

had been. One telling trace 

of passage were the marks 

on needle-broken barriers

of skin. She imagines

she got on the gurney

and welcomed the cool

alcohol swab, bright lights

and electrode-induced journey,

because it was, ultimately,

her job to try and survive

any way she could, even

if it meant losing part of life,

even if it was doubtful

that she should. She was,

after all, a mother and wife.

She tries to forget 

the memories lost, 

a white-coated landscape

crossed and recrossed.