EVAR

I met a man tonight
who was trying
to die
but didn’t
realise the seriousness
of his position—

supine, the mountain
of his middle
country rising smooth
and round,
lava seething
underneath

would leave him
boxed and cold
but then, when opened
up, they stuffed
that magma back
within its cone

and triumphant,
as his wounds
were stitched
I told him he would
get home
and still had time

so he shook his head
a little bit, saying
he was amazed
what they can do
these days—
and we erupted

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Nigel Skjellerup works in the Ōtautahi Christchurch healthcare community as an anaesthetist. He has had poems published in the Press, takahē, Mayhem, Catalyst Christmas Cracker, New Zealand Poetry Society Anthology, and Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook.