by Judith Skillman
Sits with blue trim on virtual pages
of an advertisement. I hum
a little song of syncopation
as I walk, left leg shorter than right,
six pedicle screws inserted into
titanium after three surgeons in green
lifted nerves from vertebrae.
I go to the Y, walk the treadmill.
Only a half mile. Serolac belt tightened,
Rykä tennis shoes laced. Nothing’s certain
in this conditional metal-fused
world. I know the Eskimos
have a thousand words for snow
and for pain I have only the one.
Judith Skillman’s poems have appeared in The Cimarron Review, Commonweal, Threepenny Review, Zyzzyva, and other literary journals. She has received awards from Academy of American Poets and Artist Trust. Oscar the Misanthropist received a Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award. Her forthcoming collection is Oppression, Shanti Arts Publishing. Visit www.judithskillman.com
A-minor 