SMALL MIRACLES

 Today at the Olympic-size pool

We had a near catastrophe

When Ed took off his goggles

His artificial eye was missing.

This is the first day in a whole year

That we were the only ones in the pool

The water was calm; visibility excellent.

Still I panicked.

I didn’t see how we could find it

Before it was sucked up in the filtration system.

I looked for a minute.

I thought I saw it.

I dove.

Nothing.

Should I get the two swimmers

Who were stretching out on the edge of the pool

to help me look;

First I’ll ask the life guard.

He found it in a few minutes;

But I still had to get it off the bottom

Before it moved.

I picked it up with my toes

And in a rare act of flexibility

Was able to grab it with my hand before it dropped.

The last time Ed lost his artificial eye

He was in elementary school.

It was the day of the failed

Iran hostage rescue attempt.

“You think you’ve got problems,”

the principal joked,

“What about President Carter?”

It did put things in perspective.

The whole school searched;

One of the students found it;

Believe it or not.

Another time, it came out by our pool

After dark.

Everyone looked and one of the boys

Found it on the deck close to the pool;

Or was it Amy?

How many painful expensive surgeries

has he had to build the eye socket:

With nothing in, it quickly shrinks.

Small miracles.

Eventually the hostages were set free

But Carter didn’t get re-elected.

The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States. 52 US citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the Embassy of the United States in support of the Iranian Revolution.

Sixty-six Americans were taken captive when Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, including three who were at the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Six more Americans escaped and of the 66 who were taken hostage, 13 were released on Nov. 19 and 20, 1979; one was released on July 11, 1980, and the remaining 52 were released on Jan. 20, 1981.

The episode reached a climax when, after failed attempts to negotiate a release, the United States military attempted a rescue operation, Operation Eagle Claw , on April 24, 1980, which resulted in a failed mission, the destruction of two aircraft and the deaths of eight American servicemen and one Iranian civilian. It ended with the signing of the Algiers Accords in Algeria on January 19, 1981. The hostages were formally released into United States custody the following day, just minutes after the new American president Ronald Reagan was sworn in.

  When Ed was small looking at his baby book,

He exclaimed:

“There’s good looking ole Eddy.”

Now he’s acculturated,

He doesn’t say that anymore.

He says,

“Gosh, I’m ugly.”