Olivia

You painted her without the canula
(white plastic nostril tubes to feed
extra oxygen to her starving lungs,
clinging night and day to her upper lip
like a child's mustache of milk),
but didn't have to paint out of her
alert, curious eyes the glaze
of giving up, because, while she was she,
she never did.

Dean Blehert

Last Updated: October 5, 2002