by Joanna White
The minutes click like diamonds
in the room with two clocks.
From me, she pries words like pearls
from an oyster’s grip,
nacre’s luster deflecting
the light. I do not want
to tell her what lies at the core––
sharp as an eyelash––encased
in layers of milky pink,
shellacked. I assure her
the center is clear as the heart
of a glass-blown ball.
But how do you think a pearl
is formed? she asks.
Joanna White has works published in The Examined Life Journal, Ars Medica, Healing Muse, Abaton, American Journal of Nursing, The Intima, Earth’s Daughters, Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, MacGuffin, Cape Rock, Chariton Review, Pulse, Temenos, Measure, Naugatuck River Review as a finalist in their poetry contest, and in the Poetry and Medicine column of JAMA. She gives poetry readings at conferences (including a full-session reading at the 2016 Examined Life Conference at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine) and performs and records as an orchestral and chamber music flutist.