Thank you to those who asked. Here are two of my TM-related poems
from April 2009.
Prompt: Object
Wheelchair
Confined to? No it does
not imprison me, some raw deal
dealt this blow requiring help for
every little here to there
moving through any space
Brilliant contraption: wheels
4 wheels on chair
to get you somewhere
arms as pistons hands push
against round smooth handrails
pull to spin around, go backwards
turn on a dime arm rests
grey tires and if you dare to look: purple legs
All fitted for me, the young man
who measured was energetic, kind,
knowing more, how a tool that fits
makes hell easier to climb out of
back height, seat wider for my hips,
cushion to foot rests, match knee bend past seat
and foreleg length, mobile throne,
horseless chariot, roll me roll me roll me home
transfuse your capability to convey and wing me,
(groundbound by arrow of outrageous fortune
yet spirit flutters, flaps and sometimes, soars) free
Akua Lezli Hope
prompt: Routine
Routine
Paraplegic poet meditates on T.R.
I sleep to wake and take my waking slow
I fear my fate in what is no longer there
I get nowhere that I used to go
We think we know what we don't know
I pray daily to be cured, I cry to rise from here
I sleep to wake and take my waking slow
Many have abandoned me, both friend and foe
God grant me strength! I yearn for just one listening ear
to take me somewhere that I used to go
Cruel April stalls spring, we've lost the status quo
Climate change costs lives, increases costs for care
I sleep to wake and take my waking slow
Reason eludes: why did life undo me so?
One day, it might be you, run now in open air
explore while you may, go far while you can go
Frayed nerves tremble me unsteady, I plead to know
what lesson in legs' loss, I can't climb the stairs
I sleep to wake and take my waking slow
I can go nowhere that I want to go.
Akua Lezli Hope
--
