<\/p>\n
S\/P CVA LEFT
\nHEMIPARESIS<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The stroke has left her listing
\nleft, her left limbs lagging, and
\nwe are trying to walk ten short
\nfeet without her walker, using
\nan aluminum quad cane instead,
\na new concept, and directing
\nher straight into a mirror so she
\ncan appreciate the asymmetries
\nof her gait, and be cued to look
\nahead instead of irremediably
\nat the floor. She remembers
\nnothing since the firemen and
\nthe ambulance; a month lost
\nso far, though her speech and
\nvision are mercifully unaffected
\nby her peculiar, sequestered,
\narguably lucky, anatomically,
\nbleed. At the mirror, she looks
\nat me standing behind her,
\nmy right hand wrapped in her
\nbelt. I say Bend your left knee,
\nMrs. Davis, and she says, left
\neyelid drooping, left side of her
\nmouth skewing down, You
\nwouldn\u2019t know it now, but I
\nwas beautiful once. Men came
\nfrom Fort Lewis Sundays when
\nI was 17 to watch me swan out
\nof First Baptist. She laughs and
\nI laugh, then she tears up, and I
\nsay Can you bend your left knee,
\nMrs. Beautiful? and she says
\nYou about useless, boy. And
\nI say Yes, ma\u2019am. True truth.
\nBut happiness is fitful, don\u2019t you
\nfind? A flitting wren in a lilac
\nglides down, lights on your knee.
\nThe left. This. Can you bend it?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Timothy Kelly<\/a> holds Master’s Degrees in Physical Therapy from the University of Washington, and in Fine Arts\/Creative Writing from Boston University. Since 1982, he’s worked in Olympia, WA as a Physical Therapist. He’s published three collections of poetry: Articulation,<\/a> published by Lynx House Press,<\/a> won the King County Arts Commission Publication Award in 1992; Stronger,<\/a> from Oberlin College Press, won the 1999 Field Poetry Prize; and The Extremities, <\/a>published by Oberlin College Press in 2008. Toccata and Fugue,<\/a> published by Floating Bridge Press,<\/a> won the Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award in 2005.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" S\/P CVA LEFT HEMIPARESIS The stroke has left her listing left, her left limbs lagging, and we are trying to walk ten short feet without her walker, using an aluminum quad cane instead, a new concept, and directing … Continue reading