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We Held Hands
by Donald Lev

We held hands across
the portable hospital counter,
you sitting on the bed and I across in that chair.
You trying to keep breathing the oxygen, diminishing how much
I hadn’t realized.
You didn’t want me to go.
You said, “You’re not staying the night again” and I said not this
time. I was afraid of two nights in a row. I got heart palpitations
last night. But I stayed much longer than I had intended.
But at last I waved goodbye and left you with terror.
When I got back to Jersey there was a call waiting for me
and I had to turn right around and got no sleep anyway.

How can you forgive me?

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