They're here!
I rip the package,
pull sheer stocking
over toes, ankle, shin,
extends my leg,
pull hosiery that animates prosthetic limbs,
transforms molded resin into skin.
I imagine skirts fluttering along my thighs
as I skip on these feet,
attract with these calves,
no longer rolling on wheels or
hiding my legs from pitying stares.
I'll be normal.
Yet as I examine my stockinged leg,
I discover the turquoise seam
marking the boundary of prosthesis and flesh.
Deformed, dependent, tricked by desperate hope,
I fold and cry, knowing I'll never look or walk like others.
Perched on a nearby boulder, my Soul-body marvels
at the powerful wings unfurling from between my hunched
shoulders, grief shrouding me from their luminous tips.
Elizabeth Weaver
is a two-time semi-finalist for "Discovery"/The Nation poetry award and received Special Mention for the Soul-Making Literary Prize, sponsored by the National League of American Pen Women. Her prose and poetry have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including RATTLE, 5AM, Cezanne's Carrot, Journal of Truth and Consequence, decomP magazinE, The Centrifugal Eye, riverbabble and HOT FLASHES: sexy little stories and poems. Though focused on poetry in her graduate studies, Elizabeth is completing her first novel, the main character of which has a photoblog at bonegirlpix.wordpress.com. Some of Elizabeth's writing and art are posted on elizabethweaver.wordpress.com.