to Begin Again Poem by Greg Bell

to Begin Again



Stuck in the ER again, transferred
from the rehab Kafka torture den
a shipwreck that sent me crashing
down - again - into the maelstrom

Thought I could breathe free now
Thought I was out of the undertow
away from jagged rocks
that pulverize this fragile flesh to

mere organic soup to feed the fish
but no, the world it seems is still
a dangerous place where life still
hangs by a fraying nerve, and

I am dangling
The gurney
asserts its kinship with a concrete
slab and goads my bones, my
papered flesh, for this long wait

Although I likely can't sit up
without passing out, I reach for
vertical bars on the rail, test
them for their tensile strength

I tug a bit a tiny bit of
strength in all this weakness
leveraged on my wounds then
alternating left right

hands clumsy claws
muscles gone skin and bone
my molecules remember
valences forgotten

and little by little

I pull
myself
up

to begin again

my swim for shore

Saturday, May 27, 2017
Topic(s) of this poem: determination,medical,struggle
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
Published in Wordgathering, an online journal, March 2017
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Jefferson Carter 27 May 2017

Greg, some powerful images here though the metaphor of shipwreck is a little cliched. If you'd like, check out my new website: jeffersoncarterverse.com Tell me how you like it. Yrs, JC

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Greg Bell 28 May 2017

Thank you, JC. ;)

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