Blockage
       

When the CT scan revealed
the artery fully sealed,
the image also disclosed
my body had interposed,
creating new blood vessels
to circumvent the bottle-
neck—a natural bypass
till a stent solved the impasse—
my heart sparing me the knife's
plunge. It may have saved my life.

When the words won't come, when scenes
fail to appear, or to mean
in some signifying way—
an emotional x-ray—
I need to summon the faith
that language will find a path
past any restraint—river
forging an oxbow, diver
dodging bubbles in his lungs—
let speech return to my tongue,

let me live to write again.

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Copyright © 2022 Peter Schmitt All rights reserved
from Goodbye, Apostrophe
Regal House Publishing
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission