The exterior of the Dr Everett Chalmers Hospital (DECH) is dirty in 1986,
a repellent off-white with a yellow crust on top, as if it is a horrible death
day cake one gives the sick. Inside: a wall-to-wall despotic, institutional
blue. I am 11 years old, and a niece has been born, little Jennifer, to my
older sister Lynn. I visit Lynn and the tiny baby briefly in their wardroom.
Little Jennifer, with pursed red lips and a tiny breathy body swaddled in
thick blankets ...
Prose, in its entirety, is available in the printed version of the current issue.
Bio:
Shane Neilson (mad/autistic) is a poet and physician from New Brunswick. His poetry has appeared in past issues of Queen’s Quarterly.