Lucky

 - Dorothea Tanning

 

Ever imagining the dire, the sudden

the menace with no thought of the

gradual, the lingering itch of whatever.

That was my sister.

A stomach ache had to be diagnosed.

“Oh, come on, it’s no big deal.”

“How do you know? You aren’t me.”

 

At the doctor’s office she waited.

He reached for his stethoscope,

held it to her back and put it away

in his pocket. Then, leaning across

his desk, he asked importantly,

“How long have you been eating your hair?”

She couldn’t answer.

 

After surgery they came into the recovery

room where she had just wakened.

“You are a lucky lady. We found nothing.”

She had an incision and several visitors.

Besides, she was so lucky (incisions heal)

and not a little disgusted.

 

“Me, eating my hair.”

from: Coming to That. Copyright 2011.