Perhaps an Angel

Past midnight, A&E.  Nurses check charts, murmur
about coffee, boyfriends, changing shifts.
In a cubicle, a doctor stitches up a scalp
as though he’s making lace.  Deft hands,
cappuccino skin, eyes  bruised gentle almonds.
I know I’ve seen him somewhere.

I flash back to Manhattan. In a museum called the Cloisters
mediaeval faces look down from stone walls.
Enigmatic Virgins, tortured Christs.
In a corner on a plinth there’s a head
of soft brown stone. The face smiles gently down
at hordes of children.  I read the label.

              Perhaps an angel.

Susan Castillo Street is a Louisiana expatriate and academic who lives in the East Sussex countryside. She has published a book of poems titled The Candlewoman’s Trade (Diehard Press, 2003); her poems have appeared in poetry reviews in Scotland, the US, and Luxembourg, and in online publications (The Missing Slate). She is a member of two poetry groups, the Conduit Street Poets (London) and 52.