Metric Monday - Broken-armiversary

It's my broken-armiversary!  Eight years ago this April I came careening around a trail in Moab, hit some loose gravel, lost my bearings and used my left arm to break my fall.  It didn't go to well for my left arm.  I had to have steel rods screwed in to each bone in my forearm to keep them in place as they healed.   It gave me a new subject to write about and two of my favorite poems.  Have a great Monday everyone!

Haikus to my broken arm

I heard them both break

The pain was wide, deep and new. 

For me, the earth slowed.

Two bones

Fat tires don’t grip

Four bones and pain

They gave me morphine.

The pain, missed its exit cue, 

Got drunk, held my hand.

Ode to a broken arm

Showers weren’t the same

A mending arm raised high

Swathed in plastic and elastics

In a dry salute to the shampoo

Preserving the cast.

Dinners have a new dimension.

In my lap the arm complains

Begins to throb.

The best position is 

Vertical, hand raised,

Supported by an elbow,

Like an unspoken 

Meal-time challenge. 

To arm wrestle the girl with 

The metal in her arm.

Don’t think me ungrateful.

I know full well 

A hundred years ago the doctor

Would have shook his head at me and

Said: “That’s going to have to come off”