print previewback CATHERINE MACDONALD
A Note on the Art in the Oncologist's Office
Signed and numbered, the first of three prints depicts a fleet of five with
bristling masts and winches, working boats, beneath a dull sky that bears
a blue like the bruise in the bend of my father’s elbow after the final stick
of the day.
~
In the next, wind-driven water bounces the hulls, darkening to olive like
the fading welt on his cheek. The falls in the night come more frequently
now, a side effect of morphine and lorazepam.
~
The third print marks the storm’s boundary at the door to the chemo suite
with its oxblood loungers and minifridges cooling bottles of Ensure.
In this one, white-capped waves are steely and one boat pushes away.
My father is anxious. We have arrived early. We wait.
~
In the exam room, above the shelved gowns and blood pressure cuffs,
a watercolor: wading birds of no true taxonomic order, a flock of three,
where, as if on the threshold of some fretful air, one bird arches
its broad wings and long neck, half-risen, half-gone. 
Biophilia
Bird Study
Elegy with Barred Owl
A Note on the Art in the Oncologist’s Office
Sentinel Species