Diana Darby ** "I V" ** Intravenous

Gone With The 'O'

I broke my ‘o’.
It happened last night
when the ‘o’ key on my computer
started acting weird,
like it was stuck.
I had to hit it harder than every other key
to get it to work and my wrist was getting carpal tunnel syndrome
trying to make words.
I decided I would try and fix it.
I thought if I could pry the key off I could look underneath
to see what was wrong.
It came off easy enough
but now I can’t get it back on.
I felt a wave of horror come over me just
like the time I cut off part of my eyebrows as a kid.
Or the time I got gum stuck in my hair.
Or the time I lost my baby tooth
down the drain trying to rinse it off for the Tooth Fairy.
What had I done?
I called the Apple store and told them what happened
and the kid laughed at me.
Yeah, snickered.
I couldn’t believe it.
He said I’ll have to come in for a technical appointment now
and then he said something about he hoped I didn’t break my clasp
or clip or something like that.
I hung up even more panicked than before.
Now there’s a hard plastic nipple staring at me where my smooth ‘o’ used to be.
And every time I touch it
it’s feels like I’m falling into a hole.
I miss my ‘o’.
You never know how important an ‘o’ is
until it’s gone.