Injury

Another poem! They just come out of me sometimes and I really don’t know what else to say. I usually don’t enjoy reading poems that much, but I have this creative itch inside me – to churn out prose interspersed with line breaks. If you didn’t know I just went through my second knee surgery – so far turning out much like the first one (but less reading and TV and more sleeping). And yes, I am feeling a little isolated from my sport…

Stepping onto the padded carpet
chalk thick in the air
This place is my home
but it feels strange, unfamiliar

The apparatus I used to spend
hours upon hours sweating over
Now seem hollow and distant
nothing like they used to be.

My hands, once thick and callous
now are soft, tender and pathetic.
My body, once limber and powerful
now moves with an ungainly trepidation.

My strength will return, be it weeks or months.
My weakness will banish. The rings and bars
will once again be my weapon of choice.
I’ll stand tall once more.