recovery is amazing
by t. zoEy benally

A dream is a wish your heart makes. --Cinderella, 1950

tuesday morning i killed
one of my dreams

followed proper microbiology flame sterilization technique
SD40 gobbled, then metal licked clean by turquoise flame tipped violet

my teeth & jaws hurt as soft #2 pencil wood stifled screams
& was embossed by incisors, canines
pocket knife blade sliced cell membranes & severed capillaries

if my eyeballs burst from searing pain
would vitreous & aqueous humor rain down
or glom out like desiccated jell-o?

affixed to the front of my right 4th finger, this dream kept
rings from fitting properly; even a ring made from a spoon end
shallow cup hacked off, ends curled to meet—would not fit

daily this dream caught on edges, tore & bled
daily i winced in pain, & often cried

i tossed the disengaged piece high into the tree branches
so bugs & birds might be nourished
by this cotton candy fragment of myself

wednesday i started radical chemotherapy
to keep it from coming back