Life Bites
Life Bites
Decades of spiritual practice
even-tempered, good-natured
prone to smiling
then cataract surgery on one eye
Watch out
life bites in surprising ways
It’s like having sight
from different people
seeing two separate worlds,
neither of them clear
one eye has a new lens,
but no glasses—weeks
for vision to stabilize
the other, cataract
still clouds and blurs
My watercolors look different
though each eye
Friends and doctors say easy
but my equanimity is blown
inside, irritable and annoyed
outside, watching my tongue