Hospital Hawks

By John I. Blair

Like a chrysalis cocooned in cotton
I lay upon the gurney in my socks and gown
Waiting for my colonoscopy,

Staring fuzzily without my spectacles
Through the windows on the seventh floor,
Contemplating clouds,

The distant treetops, distant buildings,
Thinking distant thoughts about mortality.
But then two shadows drifted past my vision,

Lifting lazily along the tower’s side,
A pair of peregrines at play with updrafts.
I was invisible behind the mirrored glass;

And even if they’d seen,
I had no meaning to them,
Lacking movement, usefulness.

But for me they meant the world persisted,
Lived, transcended pain and fear,
Panic and uncertainty.

So I prayed them take my soul in tender talons
Even while my body slipped
Into its dreamless anesthetic sleep.

©2011 John I. Blair