I had to get over the shock of his new pinched sharp eyes.
He mentioned right away that he’d had laser-surgery
To repair his sight: – Most of it: I still need reading specs. –
I couldn’t help wondering how he could have afforded
The Technique or Procedure or just the Operation,
But i didn’t have to ask: I knew he’d tell me.
*
It must
Have been with Mia’s help, tight-taloned eagle though she was.
(When i was her Poor Boy, i used to tell her she’d faster
Spread her legs than her fingers – which she’d then spread to scratch my
Eyes out – to prove her point: i was safer with her claws closed.
*
So why, i now asked, had Raimonde left the old bird behind?
Or had he? Perhaps they’d both emigrated to Loffdoff?
– This’ll come as a surprise to you – he said, slowing down
The car beside a deserted playground, – but it was she
Who told me to disappear after she had me fixed up.
I don’t know – he mused, stopping the car dead – it was as if
She couldn’t stand the sight of me now that i could see her
Better – like, without glasses, i was this scary stranger,
Can you believe? She even gave me some dough to get lost!
*
Raimonde's words were so convincing, they sounded like a lie
You’d tell your therapist, but there was no faulting his tone
Of puzzlement, even hurt, over Mia Frears’ choice.
Shaking my head in amazement, i asked – And you took it?
– Sure – he said quickly – why not? Who wouldn’t?
(from *fatima solagua arterra’s nudes* by Brian Chan, 2015)
FARJOURNEY CARIBBEAN 