Any Day Now

The tests results are due back
any day now.

Life is like a mouse,
sniffing around me,

and I am a doll,
on the floor, on my side,

lying where someone
has flung me.

At some point
the telephone will ring

and the wooden hinge
of my arm

will bend in its direction,
but I will let it go on ringing

for a moment
with that face at my neck

because I want to remember
at least once more

the scent of the lemon tree
in the back yard

and the view of the shoreline
on a windy day

and everything else
I've ever seen

in this world, which is so frightening
and wonderous.

Leah Browning, In the Chair Museum (Dancing Girl Press, 2013)