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Article: The state hospital, Honolulu.(poem)
- Article from:
- The Nation
- Article date:
- February 27, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 The Nation Company L.P. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The nurse is sitting with crossed legs and crossed arms on a stone bench among the oleander shrubs. Light streams from a single window on the hospital's
top floor, casting a yellow rectangle on the lawn. Later, a priest will be silhouetted in that window, administering the last rites to a blind girl.
The nurse has been mesmerized by Mercury and the Moon moving in conjunction, until the planet, like a topaz chip, settles within the curve of the Moon's sickle.
The red blossoms and nectar of the oleander (member of the dogbane family) are so toxic even the insects avoid them; its wood, on a cooking fire, is poisonous.
Someone planted oleanders ...