Saint Apollonia at the Nursing Home by Michael Dittman

Because she could not go with them,

she stays here within the too-cool walls 

of Grove Manor.  She gums her food, and 

refuses to cooperate.  Ignoring 

Sunday services, she walks outside and 

preaches her own message to the birds, and 

shouts at pedestrians, kids on bikes, 

young women in love.

Sleepless at night, she prays for those who left her. 

Trapped in this chilly land, fingering 

her rosary, until the papery skin 

of her fingers and the smooth rose-beaded 

decade start to find sympathetic grooves

She calls down angels to shatter windows 

when she feels neglected during cold 

Pennsylvania winters.  When the temperature 

drops below 85, palm leaves, reminders 

of a warmer time, shed dust and shake unnaturally 

from the force of her voice as she complains, 

bellowing for sweaters and mulled red wine 

which she never receives.

She rants of half-remembered persecutions

and fumbles in her purse for tools of ancient and 

unclear purpose, as the nurses ignore her, and  

schoolchildren sent to sing songs and spread cheer 

back away from her awesome, terrifying humanity. 







Michael Dittman lives and writes outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he also works as an English professor.  His books include Small Brutal Incidents, Jack Kerouac, and The Beat Generation. Michael's writing often draws from the clash between the natural and created spaces.