by Terry Minchow-Proffitt

            the worst part
is not seeing.

            how blood pools post-op
behind the retina.

            how your 85 year-old father’s
aortic aneurysm is about to pop.

            you could lose an eye,
the right one Jesus said to pluck.

            you could lose your father,
also the right one, Jesus said to love.

            the best part
is the surprise.

            you might be reattached
to your eye and your father.

            you just might
see him again.

            chasing a comet
by its tail.

            hoping in that wake
to rise again.
 
 
 

Terry Minchow-Proffitt lives in St. Louis, MO. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and magazines. His chapbook, Seven Last Words (2015), and his first full collection, Chicken Train: Poems from the Arkansas Delta (2016), were published by Middle Island Press.