I need to replace her main artery. It became detached and is severed. Taking the damaged part off with a delicate snip from the correct tool, I also remove the second piece in the opposite artery so it will match up with the new one. No one will ever notice.
I wish I was at my friend’s house, she has all the doodads and the experience from trying to fix her own mother, but I am on my own and she is across the country. I had to use the GPS just to find the store to buy new arteries. Places I knew are gone and the whereabouts of the big box blood vessel stores was unknown to me.
After I find and purchase them, I return to my project and adeptly pry open the connections to re-attach the new tubing. In a fragile gesture I close the gap. It worked. Looks like it was always there.
Pumping in a natural rhythm, my handiwork undetected. My mother finally has a warm heart.
Diane Funston writes poetry of nature and human nature. She co-founded a women’s poetry salon in San Diego, created a weekly poetry gathering in the high desert town of Tehachapi, CA, and most recently has been the Yuba-Sutter Arts and Culture Poet-in-Residence for the past two years. It is in this role she created Poetry Square, a monthly online venue that features poets from all the world reading their work and discussing creative process.
Diane has been published in SDPA, Summation, Last Stanza, Synkronicity, California Quarterly, Whirlwind, San Diego Poetry Annual, Meat for Tea, Tule Review, Lake Affect Magazine, and other literary journals. Her first chapbook, Over the Falls, was published this July 2022 from Foothills Publishing.
Diane is also a visual artist in mosaic, wool felting, and collage. Her pieces have been in galleries in the Sacramento Valley.
Published 5/12/24