Moon Walking
Gardening from a Wheelchair
I am just able to tug
the weeds that have grown
between the bricks
we laid twenty years ago
over the uneven surface
clumps of cement catching my wheels.
I clip the dead flowers from the hydrangeas
that gave of their best in the Christmas
heatwave. Under their skirts of bleached,
parchment flowerets
green shoots are sprouting.
I watched them from
the kitchen windows, bright blue
soft mauve and flagrant pink.
have opened
harbingers of autumn.
four weeks before
her baby is due.
She is weary and wonders how
she will summon energy for labour.
into bloom with each returning season
what caretaker husbands them
through each long winter.
instead I am stuck
with a foot encased in a moon boot.
They call it a moon boot
but they lie – it has no force
to drag me, tidal
to the stars.
No otherworldly potency
to mend bone to bone.with extra gravity,
grounding me to earth.
Gail Hennessy 2016.
Very moving, Gail. How we are anchored.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful word, 'flagrant'. All your images are so vivid.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous poem Gail. I love the slow pace of it and your imagery is just beautiful.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful poem, Gail. And so wonderful to read the point of view of someone in a wheelchair, narrating a poem. So much of literature assumes an able-bodied narrator / writer. It is so refreshing to disrupt that assumption.
ReplyDeleteI met you when you were a wheelie, and since I use one too, I know well the pace we keep, the tiny motions needed to move forward. This poem is stitched firm. Lovely.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comments. I have had two dramatic immobility sessions since 2000. The first in toe to knee cast for 10 months it was water proof so swam nearly every day and the second almost 12 months in a wheelie, plus moon boot unable to weight bear. I must say mobility is magic
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, beautiful imagery. Thank you Gail.
ReplyDeletereally singular insight
ReplyDeletehad a brief period of near-immobility back in 2005, can relate to an extent. fine poem.
ReplyDeleteI like the contrasts between light energy and heaviness - thanks Gail
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