Under the Knife
14 times in 71 years

1.  In the 1940s
little boys
all were circumcised.
No waiting for day eight,
purely for health,
snip–did I mind?
Who knows.  Now?
I still like
the little fellow.
2.  Most kids then
had their tonsils out.
About two, I spoke little:
the promised ice cream
I called “hobledy,”
but my throat hurt
too much to eat it.
3.  At seminary, married,
worked a summer on
construction, needed
hernia repair.  Kind doc
charged only what
insurance paid.
Two days in hospital then:
passed out trying to pee.
It took three nurses to get me
from floor to bed.
4.  More grad school,
second hernia repair,
used the bedpan.
5. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Back to home town,
middle-age:  back surgery,
heart surgery, belly button
hernia repair, remove malignant
polyp from colon,
remove cyst on inside
of eardrum, prostate biopsy
that led to sepsis.
11, 12, 13.  Old age:
right knee replacement,
cataracts removed
from both eyes,
14.  Coming up:
remove two polyps
from nostrils.

Not counting
colonoscopies…

-Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, August 15, 2014