Cataract

I lie flat on my back

on a stretcher in the OR

tape across my forehead

holds my head in place

soft cuffs bind my hands

I feel my eyelid blink

I ask if I blinked

I feel more blinks

no, the speculum

is holding my eyelids open

oxygen feeds my nostrils

Why, I ask

tubes along my cheeks

I can picture these things

though I can’t see them

a plastic sheet is drawn

across my face

That’s why!

fingers make an opening

above my eye

a microscope suspends

its two oculars

Look at the light

a very bright light

George’s fingers block it

he says it will dim

his fingers move away

still bright

liquid flushes my eye

billows of clear jelly

pile up from right to left

I breathe & meditate

How are you doing, Carol

they ask, I’m doing very well

thank you, I reply
followed by the name

of whoever's speaking

as instructed, I stare

at the light, three lights

brightest on the right

the pair on the left

each a bundle

of sheared-off rods

purest white

primary red swirls

between the lights

primary blue, yellow

the colors chase

& drain away

now back to white

now back to color

after a while

the lights dim

it’s dark, am I blind?

George asks for the IOL

Some pressure now, Carol

he says & presses

the acrylic lens

onto my eye

I feel it pushed

& positioned

at what point

was or wasn’t my eye

an eye?

once again

the lights are bright

That’s it, George says

Good job, I say

Perfect, he says

& a pause

Seven minutes

he says with satisfaction

it seemed like ten

for the first nights

a fringed halo circles

every outside light

I call it the lens’s

rim, rooting