A Sobering Experience With a Flashback
by Steve Toth
Simply rising from a chair
I walk into the next room
& get struck in the eye by a dark blue flash
but there's nothing
bright in this morning
Then two more flashes even brighter
colored like lightning
striking through rainbows
It's the prism effect I've come
to associate with low blood sugar
but eating breakfast
sucking down hard candy
& lying down don't work
So I take my blood sugar
& it's too high not too low
So I start drinking water
Now start observing accurately
No energy for worry or panic
Which eye is flashing & where
is it moving?
Does something I do make it happen?
Can I induce a flash
by moving my eyes
or head a certain way?
I'm imagining all this?
Flashback to when I first
was diagnosed with diabetes & started
wearing sunglasses whenever I went out
Going down the stairs with my baskets
of wash for the laundry room
Neighbor kids come running up asking so politely
May we please see your eyes?
I lift the shades high
so they can get a good look
Did you think they'd be all red like a monster's?
That gets a laugh
May we please help with your wash?
They show me how sorting dirty clothes
& putting them into washing machines
is a joyous game not any kind of chore
They double check everything so it's done right
even the smallest who is only entrusted
with one sock at a time
When the lids are closed they line up
& say thank you then disappear
A summer's morning well spent
volume 9(6)
This poem is copyright © 2005, Steve
Toth, all rights reserved.
Find more poems by Steve Toth.
The Web Projects of Sondra Ball and Mario Cavallini
