Pre-Op Prayer

Tomorrow when they are slicing your eye open
or using the laser or whatever it is they do
I will be thinking of Orion, bandolier belt low-slung
breakdancing from branchtop to branchtip in the elm antlers
and how I got the campfire started when you couldn't
where there is smoke there is fuel that refuses to ignite
pine needles without any pitch drips
I had to coax the flames out with gentler hands
and a hell of a lot more matches than usual
enough air and tinder and the heat will siphon away the dead smoke
your surgeons will work similar magic I think
when you can see again the constellations will dance
across the retina of the night sky