passing the stone

the night before I passed the kidney stone
I lay in my bed, the bunk under Ed's --
arch-nemesis, best friend

I repeated my mantra,
my breath (a palpable energy)
coursed throughout my body
like blood

soothed me
wooed me to sleep

when I woke at 6 in the morning
that night of Universal suffering
gone, gone beyond the great beyond
had it even been real?

I pissed into the toilet
held the metal-mesh cup strainer
across the way of the urine stream
and -- *plunk*
a hefty pebble landed there
from out of my wondering member