Poem: Awake and Paralyzed
March 20, 2009 by J.C. Hewitt
Awake and Paralyzed
Her brain awoke in advance of her body
I don’t know how long she was awake
Before she could open he eyes
But that was the extent of it
For quite a wile
That and a small curl of the toes
A nervous twitch for the feet
She was trapped
Awake in her unmoving body
She stared at me and I
Stared back
Smiled as much as I could
And held her hand
I sat with my head on the bed
Feeling a kind of relief
Filled with the tension of knowing
That the first steps
Of a very hard climb
Had been taken
I tried to think of things to say
Conversations to have
Without her talking
I gave the sports report
And read a little from the paper
But in the end I had
Very little to say
And felt the frustration
Of ineffectiveness
I would ask what she thought about
During those times
But I don’t want to touch that feeling
That fear
Too deeply
Whatever she felt at the time
Is probably long gone now
As the brain washes away
What it cannot handle
– J.C. Hewitt
Related links
- Poem -- The Days Before (0.500)
- Poem -- Driving Down (0.500)
- Poem -- The First Day (0.500)
- Poem -- Thanksgiving (0.500)
- Poem: Nurse Sunshine and the Drama Queen (0.500)
You’ve found exactly the right tone for these pieces! Some things can only be told baldly, the plain facts emotional enough in themselves. Those last two lines in particular … the implications flow back over the whole poem, the whole experience, adding another dimension.