I watched my mother get airlifted
and zipped into a Mom-sized cocoon
today, which is—trust me—not
the most unusual thing she’s

done in her lifetime’s research
as a holistic health nurse. A
young woman named Chloe
tucked a soft blanket over

my mother, who installed
a nasal cannula for her hour
of pure oxygen. She’s her
own best guinea pig, eager

to try any manner of healing
modalities in her quest to
improve her dimming vision.
Though she’s not a deep-sea

diver with decompression
sickness or a burn patient,
a British study reported that
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

also has anti-aging benefits, filling
the blood with enough oxygen
to repair tissues and stimulate
collagen production, which, at 92,

she is all for. All that is to say
that today I saw my mother
smiling up at me through a
window in a long, plastic tube

as, all tucked in, she prepared
for a little snooze—a Mom-
sized caterpillar in a space-age
chrysalis, hoping for radical

transformation. And after
she emerged, walking slowly
toward me, still smiling,
I could see the wings

she has grown, lifting,
ready to carry her butterfly
self wherever she wants
to go.