When we're talking eye surgery,
We're into the realm of Very Serious Needles.
When they're cutting at your vision,
You're fully conscious.
With you flat on your back
And ordered not to move,
The cockroaches of your mind are on the loose.
Afterwards,
Optically paralyzed by pain killer,
You're temporarily blind,
Groping for coffee and your choice
Of biscuits either sweet or minus honey.
When you see again, you see
A world of sharper beaks,
Of starker bones.
You start to construe your body as meat and gristle,
A battlefield of the probabilities where the odds
Are always stacked against you.
Eye surgery is a whole lot less fun than Disneyland
But you do get your coffee and choice of biscuits.

Note: I got coffee and biscuits after the operation on the left eye, which I got done privately and had to pay for. A later surgery, the combined vitrectomy (jelly-removal operation) and cataract surgery performed on the right eye was done through the public health system, and was done for free.

I got the same excellent eye surgeon for both operations. But, after the operation done in the public health system, I didn't get offered so much as a glass of water.