My life is stitched
together
with scars
some are hidden
within a knee
some are visible
some you can barely see
autographs
collected, like stars
loved and lost
a broken heart
mended
restarts
fool me twice
shame on me
a shattered heart
beats
poetic darts
reclaim my love
the baggage
grows
love again
the story flows
my fingers
mapped
with culinary mistakes
countless
knife lessons
that left me faint
sliced, slivered, severed
mandolines
pushed wrong
scalloped potatoes …
ah … so long …
finger tip-less
then Band-Aided
finishing strong
like a hero
in a song
a summer job
a construction crew
a soffit falls
a reflex calls
subluxation
a shoulder sprawls
the pain
tore me in two
then
the surgeon too
my body rewritten
stitched up my parts
dressings changed
threads remained
my skin
renewed, almost glued
“You’re a fast healer”
until
the scar
wove
itself there
then spread
its wings
my body art
over
this
living heart.
∞
Submitted as part of “National/Global Poetry Writing Month” (#NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo).
Today’s prompt: Day Twenty-Seven: “Today, I’d like to challenge to write a poem inspired by an entry from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. The entries are very vivid – maybe too vivid! But perhaps one of the sorrows will strike a chord with you, or even get you thinking about defining an in-between, minor, haunting feeling that you have, and that does not yet have a name.”
Author’s Note: See Scabulous. And I humbly ask, please, read the poem aloud.
30 Poems in 30 Days
All text and photography © Dale Schierbeck
…. more of my original Poetry on EatsWritesShoots here.
The stories we can tell with the marks on our bodies from various (mis)adventures.
And reading the definition of scabulous made me think of Lethal Weapon when Rene Russo and Mel Gibson are comparing their scars…
Yes — exactly. Was a good piece of inspiration to look inward and honouring how we all grow through the pain of experience and the marks it leaves on us. Definitely makes us who we are …. Thank you for reflecting on it with me. 🙂
Pleasure is mine!