Diagnosis

The gums of the sky bled. I
fainted. I woke up to a TV
blaring in a midwestern hospital: Kurt
Cobain, my favorite
musician, killed himself.
My parents were back east, suffering
the aftershocks of their divorce,
which made them too busy, tired, and
unavailable to hold my hand or offer any
words of comfort before or after
a tall, affable doctor with a marvelous
southern drawl stuck a metal, snake-like
camera inside me and discovered ulcers
on my small intestines. They would stay
with me for the rest of my life. I gasped.
Not to worry, the doctor said. You can
still live a mostly normal life.
Kurt was gone. My friends
were there, turning off the TV
and telling me jokes. I laughed.
Sunlight dripped into my veins.

Joey Nicoletti’s latest books are Extinction Wednesday: A Memoir (Bordighera, 2024) and Breakaway (Broadstone Books, 2023). He teaches writing at SUNY Buffalo State University.