Connect
MJA
MJA

The operation

Sarah Blake
Med J Aust 2015; 202 (1): 35. || doi: 10.5694/mja14.01324
Published online: 19 January 2015

To help my mother's eyes
small gold weights
might be placed
in her eyelids.

Naturally the eye
is always open.
It is an effort
that lets us sleep.

I imagine the pharaohs
may have had gold
in their eyelids, too —
some high sign of wealth.

The extra weight
relieving all the small muscles
of their expectations —

some new medicine
for the aches
in the dark temples
of these gods of men.

My mother and the bent-
bearded men sharing
this gold, blinking.

My mother's eye
a blue beside
the pull of black.
Open, a queen of Egypt.

Closed, the eyes
of her failing nerves.

  • Sarah Blake1

  • Haverton, PA, USA


Correspondence: 

Author

remove_circle_outline Delete Author
add_circle_outline Add Author

Comment
Do you have any competing interests to declare? *

I/we agree to assign copyright to the Medical Journal of Australia and agree to the Conditions of publication *
I/we agree to the Terms of use of the Medical Journal of Australia *
Email me when people comment on this article

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.