Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Poetic Asides Prompt: Operation


Appendectomies: Buy One Get One Free

The day I had my appendix removed, the nurses
accused the surgeon of running a special.
Such an odd thing—to have many people
in a small town need the same surgery
on the same day. What’s behind the mystery?
Is it that the surgeon’s children prayed
for more money to go to private schools?
Or maybe there’s an appendix germ,
like the flu, that no one knows about.
Or maybe each surgery has its own demon
and the appendix demon had to fulfill a quota
or be doomed to wander in a herd of pigs.
Or maybe there’s a reason why
they invented the word “coincidence.”
But some coincidences are just plain weird.

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