Excuse me, I think I am dying - Lena Ruth Stefanović

Two years ago I passed away

No, really

I haven’t written about it

Which is unusual

Given that I write about almost everything

First you don't understand

Then you get it, you are looking into Death’s eyes

None of you is blinking

Death had found me at a birthday party

I was wearing a lace dress

And I laughed a lot

At the ER there was a queue

I approached the room for exams and said:

"Excuse me, I think I am dying...”

In a wheel chair

They transported me to the emergency vehicle

Blue lights flashing on the top of it

And we took off towards the Urgent Care Center

Some other doctors examined me there

Then I fainted

Next thing I remember

Is watching from somewhere above

With birds’ eye view

I see myself on the narrow hospital bed

And I think to myself

‘Kay, that’s over too

I'm sad I hadn't published my novel 

Then plenty of medical personnel came in

They ran while pushing the bed with me on it

down a long corridor to some unknown destination

later on it would turn out

that it was then my heart had stopped

as soon as I was released from intensive care

like everyone else,

the first thing I did

was

to

post a hospital selfie on facebook.

---

Lena Ruth Stefanović (born 1970) Montenegro

Translated by the author

Source: Trafika Europe 17 – Mysterious Montenegro, Penn State University Libraries