After Russell Edson
The ophthalmologist holds my eyeball in his hands, gloved and cradled in
white latex. My eyeball twitches under the dim lights. It asks politely to be
rejoined to the rest of my face. The ophthalmologist says, no, I don’t think
so. You are broken nerve and fried pupil. My eyeball says, well, what about your
Hippocratic Oath? The ophthalmologist laughs. He turns to me.
Some joker, right? He takes my other eyeball, which is silent. He leaves my
sockets stuffed with cotton.
________
Remi Recchia is a trans poet and essayist from Kalamazoo, Michigan. He is a PhD candidate in English-Creative Writing at Oklahoma State University. He currently serves as an associate editor for the Cimarron Review and the Reviews Editor for Gasher Journal. A four-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Remi’s work has appeared in World Literature Today, Best New Poets 2021, Columbia Online Journal, Harpur Palate, and Juked, among others. He holds an MFA in poetry from Bowling Green State University. Remi is the author of Quicksand/Stargazing (Cooper Dillon Books, 2021) and Sober (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2022).