Fracture

         FRACTURE


There was pain in fracture.
As bone separated from bone
severed in a jagged mid shaft line.
A new knee revealed
My leg taking an unexpected
Mid-shin left turn.

There was pain in healing.
The heavy plaster cast
rigid from toe to crotch.
Collecting life’s grime unwashed on the outside.
Collecting skin, normally free to become dust,
waiting to be vacuumed or collect on knickknacks.
Now trapped in a thick moist layer
lining the bottom of my foot -a new sole.

There was pain in rehabilitation.
As my emaciated leg levitated by an unseen force.
Rising from the table the instant it was freed
from it’s long time plaster prison.
My leg felt awkwardly short without the cast.
My knee forgetting it was an articulation.

There is pain.
Forty years later.
On the coming rain.


Bryan Bridges