Ode to My Left Hand

Ode to My Left Hand

Oh, neglected left hand,
I know I have not favored
you in the past,
the right seems to have
had all of the talent.
She could write better,
she could accomplish all
of the mundane
tasks I asked of her
without your awkwardness.
I never appreciated
or recognized your part
in her successes.

Now that you have been
sidelined by brutally broken bones,
I see how much
you contributed to every
aspect of my life.
How helpless the right is
without assistance from you.
From small tasks, squeezing toothpaste
onto a brush or slicing tomatoes,
to larger tasks, hooking a bra,
opening a bottle of V8,
or typing this poem,
you are sorely missed.

Your loveliness is now hidden
beneath ugly wrapped gauze
over a torturous, stiff splint
with surgery looming,
adding screws and pins.
How I long to see your fingers
wiggle and grasp
again.
Never more will I dismiss
your beauty.
You are the yang to my yin.
                    ~~Judi Van Gorder

Notes: ▼

Free Verse
39 Lines

Same subject, different form, a Chastushka Response to forms challenge at Poet's Place Café
My Hand

         Never did I think you'd fail me.
         Broken bones have changed the whole scene.
         Though my favored Right is trusty,
         missing help from Left, was unseen.

         Tasks are awkward when you're gone,
         slicing onions, typing poems,
         hooking bras, and pulling pants on.
         Wiggling, grasping, crippled gems.
                                        ~~~jvg

Notes: ▼

8 Lines
Chastushka  
trochaic tetrameter quatrains rhymed abab cdcd etc