White

by Bill Garten

This thin wall

where there are no stains

like my napkin

still left unfolded

on this plastic hospital tray

never used during the meal

there are no dinner guests here

where this pale fear

paints this face

borders this starched gown

already probed gently

by cold fingers

testing the stiffness

of my own company.

BIO: Recently Billy Collins picked three of Bill’s poems to be both short-listed and long-listed as finalists in the Fish Anthology 2022, and his poem “I Lost” was a semi-finalist in the 2022 James Applewhite Poetry Prize competition from the North Carolina Literary Review. Bill’s book, Asphalt Heart was published by The Main Street Rag Publishing in 2018, and its chapbook version was a finalist in The Comstock Review’s 2017 Jessie Bryce Niles Chapbook Contest. We Have to Stop Here, Bill’s most recent book, is a recent semi-finalist in the 2020 Willow Run Poetry Book Award.