Enjoy Being Human

Sharon Olinka

Lupe

Everything got cloudy.
My left eye propped open.
Lens cut out.
New one put in.

Anesthetic not so thick.
I could still hear
the Medicaid doctor
joke about me.
Say, she's a shorty.
Then talk about the Spurs.
Last night's game.

If only I had laser!
Four thousand dollar laser—
what Medicaid won't give me.

The other eye?
Not so good.
Got a different doctor.
I see a big black
spot everywhere
I look,

but I want you
to know Jesus
will make it
go away.

About Sharon Olinka

Contributor headshot, Sharon Olinka

Sharon Olinka, poet and literary critic, is the author of Old Ballerina Club (Dos Madres Press, 2016.) Her publisher's website is www.dosmadres.com. Her previous books are The Good City and A Face Not My Own, and Olinka's poems have appeared in Drunken Boat, Prairie Schooner and The Texas Observer, among many other publications. In 2016 she read for the McNay Museum in San Antonio and for The State of the Book literary conference sponsored by Gemini Ink. She won a Barbara Deming Memorial Award for her poetry, and grew up in New York City.

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