going…gone

by Walter Weinschenk

Doctor with the rude blue eyes sat like a timid cat in a big chair in her little office. Diplomas on every wall with print too small to see.  I stared above her head through the window that framed a white sky, brighter than you can imagine.  A jet plane, tiny in the distance, crept across the glass from one side to the other like an insect, earnest and irrepressible, along an unalterable course.  “I am so sorry . . . ”, “nothing more we can do . . . ”, “manage the pain . . .”, “find what’s most comfortable . . .”, etc. She stretched out her words to form one long sentence that snapped like a rubber band against the back of my brain and it stung without stopping.

“I am going . . .  I am gone,” I thought.

I ran out the door.  I felt a tingle as my veins turned river green.  My hair hung like strands of gold and my fingers flowered like peonies.    I sprouted downy wings, jumped and flew and slid across the sky as if I owned it.  I was going . . . I was gone.

Photo of Walter Weinschenk

BIO: Walter Weinschenk is an attorney, writer and musician. His writing has appeared in numerous literary publications including La Piccioletta Barca, The Normal School, Lunch Ticket, The Carolina Quarterly, The Worcester Review and others. He is the author of "The Death of Weinberg: Poems and Stories" (Kelsay Books, 2023). Visit at walterweinschenk.com.