An investment in life

Looming over kidney failure
liver failure
i filled out paperwork
on a tiny brown half sized clipboard
checking empty boxes
not built for those hard of seeing

redundant

remote control tables tilting
white chin rests align electronically
"look at the green dotted cross"

FLASH

"the red hot air balloon taking flight"
from a fresh paved road
converging with the sky into forever

Flash

a puff of air bursts into hazel corneas
blinking mad

grandfather was in the Army engineer corp
helped build the ALCAN Highway

10 feet of gravel down
Optometrist Joe was in the Army too
had driven that highway before
illegally flew his dog by helicopter
twice

kept him in the bathroom in the women's hospital ward
said he shit everywhere

look at the wall behind
blinding white light
fingers stretching tired eyelids apart
holding the wet back

mounted mirrors
throwing endless thick frames
tinted lens styles
sleek form fitting facial structure

i choose random thin black frames
with wide lenses
for computer screens prescription poetry
and brand spankin' new Italian made wayfarer's

i bought my dying mother $600.00 worth of eyeglasses
after she settled on a "John Lennon" style
and Ray-Ban aviators  that she had wore all of my life

we shuffled from the store
an hour past closing
driving her home
i knew everything was about to change yet again








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this is about finding out my mom is in Atrial fibrillation and possibly the first stages of kidney or liver failure; as well as a trip to the eye doctor/eyeglass store.