Diane Webster

Dream Turning 70

I push my little cart of belongings
into the facility I am supposed
to live in. The receptionist ignores
me as I step inside so I take
the elevator up to hopefully my room.
It’s weird because the elevator
goes up then becomes an open-roofed
box moving sideways I think to my room.
The smell smothers me in nursing home
smell like when I visited my grandmother.
Old people wearing light blue robes
over whatever night clothes crowd
the halls like Holocaust survivors
or almost survivors. Room numbers
written in pencil over the doors
read 3176 or 5176 and I want
just 176 so I retreat to the elevator
and push floor one button
hoping 176 is on the first floor.
The elevator opens to wandering
people at least dressed, but they
jostle me along the way
like a piece of driftwood
tumbling down a river.
I find room 176 with lots
of people milling around
the door curtained open.
I spy bunkbeds wedged
against the door, and I sense
someone has died inside
and these are family members
mourning the body still inside.
I find a nurse’s station
with everyone crying
and not wanting to help me
even though I say I’m not staying here
and where is the elevator
so I can get out of here.
A nurse directs me down the hall
where two policemen are stationed;
one leads an unruly man back to his room
and the other disappears,
but I find him trying to escape
into a room. He offers no help,
but an old woman tells me to follow her
so I do and end up in a tiny room
like a closet. She grabs my coat collar
and wants to choke me, and she is
strong. She isn’t hurting me,
but I can barely move to defend myself
until I finally get her on the floor.
I kick her twice hard. I hear the sound
echo off my bedroom wall, and I wake up.
Still home in bed. Did I bust a hole
in the wall? I wiggle my toes to see
if they hurt having kicked the wall.
No, everything seems fine;
the wall is fine. I hope that
damned old lady isn’t fine,
and she thinks twice before
coming after me again.

 

Diane Webster's work has appeared in Old Red Kimono, North Dakota Quarterly, New English Review, Studio One and other literary magazines. She had micro-chaps published by Origami Poetry Press in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Diane has been nominated for Best of the Net and a Pushcart. She was a featured writer in Macrame Literary Journal and WestWard Quarterly. Her website is: www.dianewebster.com