A view of the world

Elton John’s yellow brick road races across towards our house from Matiu Soames
Mid Winter, the sun dropping in its usual show-offy way, exploding grey clouds
I’m chopping a red onion that ought to be a shallot but I forgot and it will do
the dill is waiting with the cream, the capers, the chopped garlic, zest of lemon

Tomorrow an eye surgeon will scoop out my old useful lens from my right eye
someone described it as akin to a designer scoop for a delicate entrée of
well, who knows, something that small, a small scoop and out comes my lens
my faithful view from my right eye of the world, my perspective, a wee bit cloudy

I’m having a wee slosh of wine as the recipe demands a deglaze and I only have
my favourite Pinot Gris with which to do this, so of course, I’m going to taste it too
in the meantime a friend just emailed to say they had their cataract done yesterday
And it was … challenging and everyone else had assured her it was a doddle

She emails back almost immediately to say she didn’t mean to scare me and that
her eyesight is better already but you know she just wanted to be honest and her advice 

        You just lie back and let it happen as with so many things in life

I’ve warned the surgeon I sometimes get vertigo but now I’m practising lying flat

I will lie back as my friend suggests and think of England as the saying goes
But there’s so much else to think of, eyesight aside, right now its Gaza and Tehran
And I live at the bottom of the world where I can have a new plastic lens for my
new view of the world safe inside a sheltered harbour nowhere near war