CLEAR SHINING AFTER RAIN

From Sometimes a light surprises – in praise of recovery

by William Cowper (1780)

Beige permeates 

all that’s viewed

through the fine gauze

of a cataract.  

Like the inability to recall names

or complete a crossword

it grows by stealth

simulating aging.

  

You have to hand it to technology:

it’s uncommon to find a fix for age.

But in the case of cataracts

things can be done.

Pay the right price,

lie under the microscope,

dream on midazolam

while things go on.

A tiny instrument in the surgeon’s hands

screams at the cataract,

its sound shatters it and with a microsucker

she pulls the bits out.

A new plastic lens is fitted,

takes ten minutes,

and costs more

than an Indian peasant

earns in a lifetime.