My Life Poem by Angela Davis

I was still young
and able bodied
searching- trying to find
what was to be my life

Then one night
taking a walk
just six blocks
from our home

Came a car
barreling at us
how I shouted
and I shoved

My lover was safe
then I was hit
all went black
there went my life

Seven days later
I awoke into Hell
dressed in bandages
pain and nothing more

Vague visions
doctors and nurses
shouted whispers
exploding my head

Words I heard:
brain damage,
paralysis,
and coma

Surely not me
I am already dead
darkness overcomes
again I sleep

Next I awaken
she's at my side
I examine her face
through slitted eyes

I see her pain
and her fear
but what is this?
Do I see anger?

The days pass me by
in a nightmare
constructed of pain
that became my life

So many surgeries
piecing me together
Like ole' Humpty Dumpty
I'd never be whole again

How I blamed them
for taking my right
to live or die
it was my life

Months passed me by
and all the doctors
like the king's men
finally gave in

Never again would I walk
But I'd have souvenirs-
the carved skin of scars,
a gift from the drunk
that took my life

I went home
forever changed
now resented
by my 'love'

Years of physical therapy
filled with added trauma
and I did the 'impossible'
Though I couldn't, I walked again

Years passed me by
before I learned
no one- not the drunk,
doctors or my 'love'
could take what was mine-

My Life