Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Ocular Herpes

A name far worse
Than the disease.
My vision clouds six times daily
And a sting-
Fire to my eyes and vinegar to my nose.

Nuclear water
Drains down the pipes.

Now through glass,
The world seems smaller,
Almost quaint.

I only hope
That at the end
I keep the perspective,
Leave the pain.
------------------

There's nothing terribly introspective about this. Quite the opposite in fact. In Russia, I got ocular herpes somehow. Too much unprotected eye sex maybe. Or perhaps the metro. In any case, I had a really awful routine. Every morning, I had to flush my eyes with some kind of liquid that looked like yellow hilighter had been soaking in. Then, eye drops. Wait 5 minutes. More eye drops. Wait 5 minutes. Manually RUB cream into my eyes. Repeat 6 times daily for 4 weeks.

2 comments:

Evan Larkin said...

More specifically, it was Keratitis, which isn't exactly ocular herpes, but is related to it. The only real difference is that Keratitis is completely curable.

Gunter Heidrich said...

When I first read this a couple weeks back in the runtogetherFormathere I read your commentary as part of the poem as well. To be honest I think it betrays your true attitude toward the ordeal a bit better and the candor to me at least is far more appealing.

With some selective editing I'd recommending combing both parts and see if you come to an agreeable middle ground.