Anesthesia

a reflection on a conversation with a friend

I learned today that most anesthesiologists don’t ask patients

To count down from 10 anymore,

Instead, they ask a patient to recount a favorite memory…

After being asked, she settled on a recent picture

Of a bike ride with her cousin by the water.

I, however, would probably go to sleep in confusion,

Fighting between memories of my youth with my mother

holding me up on her feet and holding my arms singing a made up song,  or

wrapping me up in a towel and being carried safely

away from a bath, being read to on my grandmother’s lap,

diving backward in a flip in a best friend’s pool,  

 (I do know it would be a simple moment,

not a milestone),

or would it simply be,

This movement walking and talking with you.

Reviews

[Davidgeo]

You should read Infinite Jest. You already like it if you can stomach the text.