Anders Villani

When Closing Post-Surgical Drains

Squeeze out air for best suction. Steadiness
the pain barrier. Ignore the purple
in the dawn light that is not at

all purple; pay the envy in
the sparrow in the bird bath thin mind.
Like too-raw sunlight, site bruising

may float across vision as a gentle
prismatic havoc. Retape and unkink

tubing, re-pin to nightdress. Tighten the stopper.
Check the suture. Press in clean fingers
of the eyes the urge

to rebuke the sun, the sparrow—blame
the pain barrier
and bearer. Sop spills. Gentler.

Gentlest. Have patient name the far-off melody
the old sleeping
dog wheezes. Distract, but quell

laughter. Have woozy patient re-gloss
a silvered deck or cut

bangs and flower stems in the same handful
at the same jag. Duet
rakes through diaphragm gravel.

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Anders Villani holds an MFA from the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writers' Program, where he received the Delbanco Prize for poetry, and a PhD from Monash University. He is the author of two poetry collections, Aril Wire (Five Islands Press, 2018) and Totality (Recent Work Press, 2022). He lives in Naarm / Melbourne, Australia.