Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Favoring One Side

Favoring One Side

Because the left ankle wobbles,
the right ankle thickens, compensates.

The sore tooth rests. The others
swoop in, rise up against bread and soup.

One shoulder an inch closer
to the ear, and on the opposite side, a rib

tugging away from the core.
The body is protective of itself, favoring

one side when injury assails
bones, loosens tendons. We’ve got this

under control, double of almost
everything. What isn’t duplicated in us

is at least hooked to a substitute,
and it comes rushing in should we need

it, should we give it a little yank.
We borrow it and it is ours. Our sturdy grip

exists because it did not used to,
but we needed a sling, a shield, a cradle.

8 comments

  1. I like this, especially "What isn't duplicated in us/ is at least hooked to a substitute".

    ReplyDelete
  2. I feel as Maureen...I am glad that we are duplicated in ourselves! xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  3. Speaking as a person with a sore tooth, I identified!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like how this could apply equally well to the body politic, or to Gabby Giffords' brain... or to neither.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sling, shield, cradle, all things that are helps/crutches for our physical body. I liked that ending, as well as these lines, "The sore tooth rests. The others
    swoop in, rise up against bread and soup." (Ate soup tonight for dinner, mmm.)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Compensation is a wonderful thing and so often unconscious. Jung wrote a lot about it. We go too far to one side then the psyche swings to the opposite to balance it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. A small hymn to inner equilibrium. Loved it.

    ReplyDelete

The Storialist. All rights reserved. © Maira Gall.