nose problems

fifty-eight years ago today/I was in an operating room at st. joseph’s hospital/with a doctor reaching into my nose/and excising with his instrument/a gaggle of nasal polyps/of various sizes

then the doc jammed a yard/of packing material into my nasal cavity/to staunch bleeding

and the removal of that packing/produced the most intense pain i have ever felt/to this day

and second place goes/to when dr. frerichs in a subsequent visit/again reached into my nose/to pluck out developing scabs/to minimize scar tissue

and a distant third is the time/i tore off most of the skin of my left big toe/in a bike accident/when i was barefoot

but back to that scar tissue/minimized or not it and more polyps/have appeared in two mris/done five years apart/in my right sphenoid sinus

and that that region is unchanged/in five years/is great news

and I love the word “sphenoid”/so i am overall good/with my nose now