Elena Bentley
SURGERY DAY CELEBRATION
Royal University Hospital
Saskatoon, SK – January 1991
Happy Birthday! I just turned three.
I celebrated with anesthesia, nurses,
the doctor, their eyes over me.
While I slept, they sliced open feet,
crooked, clubbed, they lengthened
and tightened, reformed. I was cast
from hip to toe in plaster, woke
in bed, permanently bent. Alone
until the rest of my party arrived
with gifts. Mom and Dad, look—
I was fixed.