Jimmy Burns

DUEL

Left side

nothing.

                                      professor from university

                                      chides poet for right hand

                                      justification.

arm hangs limply

from shoulder

                                      typing

                                      good hand only

                                      quicker than he was

                                      fewer mistakes

                                      than before horizon event

therapist

bitches at poet

for left neglect.

                                     live as normal life as possible;

                                     days consumed by writing,

                                     freewheeling metaphors

                                     leap to paper.

Left side

fails to accept

long distance

phone calls

from brain.



                                     dependency...

                                     on right initiative



left side

nothing

* * *

WAITING FOR MY ELECTRIC WHEELCHAIR TO BE REPAIRED

Bureaucracy
confirmation of handicapping condition,
verification from doctor
of long standing paralysis,
approval from insurance carrier
less deductible.

Call customer service
to coax status of repair.
Dial into answering system,
placed on hold,
"You are customer 23"
"You are customer 16"
"You are customer 7"
"You are next in line,
a representative
will be with you soon."

Surly man snorts
"what I can I do for you?"
He demonstrates
his lack of sympathy
for citizens with disabilities.
"All I want to know
the status of my chair?"
"Scheduling says the earliest
we can come out there
is nineteen days."

Weary of the runaround
inquirer hangs up.
He clutches his canvass wheelchair
grappling with the concept
of necessity for self-locomotion.

Jimmy Burns writes his poetry with his right arm from his wheelchair at his rural home at the edge the urban chaos of Houston. Burns survived a stroke at age 49 in 2005 and retired from teaching English. Burns had published many poems before stroke and more afterwards. Recent poetry in Backstreet, Clark Street Review, Edgz, Left Behind, Nomad's Choir, Pegasus. Saturday Diner, Sol, Wordgathering and Writer's Block .