Kerri Shying R # 563 - The Venus of Barton Street at 57

The Venus of Barton Street at 57
for Kit Kelen with gratitude for the blog

at 57
I walk back up the hill
alone    in my high fi socks
both hands on the grips of
the walker    I can't feel the footpath
I can gauge my feet by sound
and feel the street
rumble up the wheels

Trisha made me birthday fish and caviar
all care    so relaxed I let my shoulders
drop    the air is all the weeks ahead
the new electric wheelchair    now
one sleep away   and not too soon
I list and topple    sweetness of familiar
people all around any of whom would
rush out to my cry
at splintered bones

I'm in the place I should be
inching up the hill towards my dog  who
has his own membership card at the bowlo
when he joined the manager asked   did he
have the same surname as me  

this is the place
full of grab bars lift aids bed rails
 Gimptopia Welsummer
made
in the image
of my body

this place where plans sprout wings   where words
find air   the creatures come to toss off skins
replete with knowing all are equal  all
can be the crooked dancers  slow as a Noh
play or dervish   should it please
and I let this hilltop spring wash us
feeding
the streams our rivulets

I splay out of my clam shell
57 one leg shorter than the other
the Venus of Barton street
shorn of hair
salty
eager to be ashore