a loud beep ushers in a cursive brand name shaped like a Phoenix
in the monochrome flame I can see the green parrot on the yellow kite I bought for my son and daughter on our cross country move from DC to LA in 1991 before it flew from our hands into the sky above Redondo Beach
Hello Peter Harris
Connecting to network
Self testing
Connect bags
Open the clamps
Priming
Initial drain
Check patient line
Connect yourself
I bob and weave to the staccato instructions from my new night-time companion
my Pulmonologist says I should be dancing together with him and my
Cardiologist Nephrologist and Rheumatologist
but I’ve lost all rhythm after kidney failure and since I moved from independence in California to interdependence in my son’s home in Florida
cranes fly in the sky above his home
a year into my recovery but I still hear squawking of the flock of parrots who claimed the evening skies above my home in Altadena
one parrot brings up the rear phasing from neon green into a blazing yellow triangle
End of Therapy
Turn me off
my companion welcomes me to another morning
leaving me hoping for a new-day flow and the miracle of a body that again lets me fly
Copyright ©2024 Peter J. Harris. Used with permission of the author.