the loss, what does it mean?
these things require analyzation, consideration,
chewing over what it has meant to your heart,
to your past and your psyche
or at least to the development of your future.
the loss, it spills over at the fringe,
pulses hot and bloody
and demanding, seeking attention,
tapping at the periphery and crying for focus.
the image of the body
so malformed, so malfunctioning,
you can hardly breathe for the picture of it.
the loss, it yanks the faculties into
emotional response, sensibility in suspense.
the image of the spinal cord
or the synapses firing all at once
and the limbs jerking in response, the joints
snapping from here to there like a marionette.
and the voice, the voice that reaches
deep from within the lungs
and the stomach to say,
oh help.
the loss, what does it mean?
a startling sense of being earthbound, bodybound,
fleshly and weak, cringing and foolish--
and while the response is grace,
the loss means everything.