Once a year I go for my annual checkup
to eye doctor Stephen Obstbaum
at Northwell Health big hospital building
where ominous signage denotes every floor.
(Although I do not have glaucoma
I see Stephen Obstbaum on the glaucoma floor.)
Eye doctors offices are always nervous places
and because we are forced to sit even farther
away from one another because of Covid
and there are no magazines either
just a big tv with sports on the screen
and no one is watching I ask an older woman
across from me entirely dressed in black and white
polka dots even her handbag has polka dots
if she would like to talk about her eyes or anything else
and she, as though we have rehearsed this
many times, tells the entire room, in an appealing theatrical voice
(maybe she was an actress. maybe not) about her
Macular Degeneration, her eye drops, the way the
world has changed in her eyes (and why she no longer
cares about what’s on her right or her left) and we
who were nervous before listen to her well told story
and one man in the corner, in a brown suit with well-polished
brown shoes even claps, and she stands up
a little wobbly, and bows.
Bravo to you and Ms Polka Dot.