The Patience Museum

Walls of half-wet 
              white paint. A painting of an elderly driver 
on the interstate. And a portrait 
of a woman with 88 grocery items 
               in the express line. A life-size waiting 
room, every chair full. War and Peace, 
Moby Dick, and Bleak House, original editions. 
A bathroom, occupied. And a second 
               bathroom, also occupied. A pregnant woman 
made of wax. And a nurse searching, searching
               for a fetal heartbeat.