- Lily Soares
Surgical Anxiety
It was so early, too early,
it was like black velvet outside.
I bounced my knee nervously as I waited.
All I could hear was my heartbeat,
loud
and deep
and racing,
and all i could smell were sterilizers, they clogged up my brain.
They called for me, and I walked
through the cold
white
empty hallways.
The nurses injected anesthesia into my veins,
And I held my breath.
I hated needles.
I hated hospitals.
I hated this.
I laid on my bed,
and they said to count down from ten.
I don’t remember what happened after three.