Hazel Hall

A Virtual World

A Crimson Rosella alights outside my hospital room window. It peeps In with its dazzling plumage. I stare at its audacity.

Don’t you know visitors are banned?  I am out of grace in this hospital bed. Tired of emojis, gifs and feel-good vibes, needing a celestial being to carry the colours of my pain. 

needle jabs—
new tattoos forming
on my wrist

I’m trapped in a virtual world. Grabbing the iPhone, I zoom in to snap your image. Hear your short song, a silver sanctuary bell, polished to purity. When you lift into the sky it is as if the whole earth were breathing deeply again.

carmine stratum—
released from my cage
I wing my way home

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About the Author

Hazel Hall is a well-published Australian poet, musicologist, and lifelong learner who loves collaborating with other artists. Her latest collections are Step by Step (Picaro Poets 2019), Moonlight Over the Siding (Interactive Press 2019), and Severed Web  (Picaro Poets 2020). Her sonnet collection A Hint of Rosemary is forthcoming.