J.L.Seagull

To Be
Like Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Is To Fly
Out Of One Moment And Into The Next
At The Speed Of Thought.

Lying in a hospital bed
I dream of the impossible
Surgery veiled my eyes
and left me blind

to the possibilities -
Now I can see again
I can be again;

To Be
One Has To Live On A Prayer
The Speed Of Thought
And You Are There.

jan 1999
Ten years ago to this day I had my second trabeculectomy, a common invasive glaucoma surgery. It was performed as a result of the high, intensive, intravenous doses of steroids that appear to be the first and last all-important treatment for lupus.
Ten years on, I am living free of steroids by personal choice. I still have glaucoma and one of the trabeculectomies has failed, and had to be replaced by a Molteno implant, a very clever device inserted by an even cleverer surgeon (a very attractive Irishman as luck would have it!).
I am still hoping to turn into a bird but the speed of thought has brought me here, to you, and for that I am grateful.