Nancy Levinson

Is This a Dagger Which I See Before Me?

They summoned the therapy dog
on call walking the hall
by the ophthalmology rooms
where the retina specialist
injects patients' eyes --- eyeballs

The dog scampered to me
after my treatment
for macular degeneration 
in my right eye  and after
I rose from the tilted chair
startled at seeing a cluster of
sliced black olives
that couldn't be brushed away
because they weren't there
or in the air
or anywhere
I have thee not, and yet
I see thee still 

I froze blinked,
then melted down
double double toil 
and trouble
O that happens sometimes
everyone said
those bubbles
will dissolve and disappear

Disoriented as I'd become
I lost my balance
and fell against
a waiting room chair
That's when they 
called for Yolo
a big Australian labradoodle
caramel colored
Yolo O Yolo
standing soundless
accepting my embrace
in exchange for curly comfort

Sometimes it's hard
to be a human person
I whispered to him
I knew not the dog's mind
perhaps Yolo also knew
what they knew
the sliced black olives 
that I saw before me
would dissolve
                     
by nightfall
all went well
that ended well         

 

Nancy Levinson is author of a poetic memoir, Moments of Dawn; a chapbook, 
The Diagnosis Changes Everything; as well as some thirty books for
young readers.  She is a Pushcart Prize nominee for an anthologized essay, 
"Online Dating in the Golden Years," and a runner-up in the October Poetry 
Project 2025. Her work has appeared in Dorothy Parker's Ashes, 
Hamilton Stone Review, Silver Birch Press, Constellations, Blood and Thunder, 
Silly Goose Press, and elsewhere.