Vision Screen: The Bottom Line

On time is usual for me.
Today I was early enough
to enjoy the routine
of completing both sides
of two forms
like I did six months ago
and six months before.
I pressed information to the lines
in cursive form learned
via the Palmer Method.

I wrote
exact data
as the pervious pages
in my thick manila folder
resting next to the phone
on the receptionist’s counter.

All diagnostic signs
were the same as before
and multi-colored photos snapped through
the viewer showed no storm fronts
on what looked like Doppler weather maps.

The letters on the wall poster
were the same letters
I read before and before.

I read the bottom line.

Is that how the saying
about the bottom line originated?
Have I learned another contribution
of the Snellen Eye Chart?

Today’s “bottom line” was “no change.”
With persistent, steady effort
I pushed the wall labeled aging
back another notch
in a game I am destined to lose.
That’s the “bottom line.”