The Silver Tank

A long ward of a children's hospital in Boston on an October late afternoon, tall windows with amber light, in front a silver-grey steel tank two metres long on an open tubular frame with four castors, at its head end a slanted plate with a round window held by clamps, before it a padded headrest, smooth and empty, on the flank an oval porthole and a plain brass plate, above the tank an upright glass tube gauge on a plain white backing, beneath it a motor, a pump, curved pipes and a ribbed hose, a hand in a starched white cuff resting on the gauge, an empty white iron bed behind.