500 Piece Puzzle, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs27 on Twitter/X) (Note to reader, I am in the middle of transitioning male to female, my preferred name is Jackie, I am keeping my dead name for poetry purposes only.)

The able body, don’t need a lobby
They don’t need the bars in bath
They don’t need
A slanted sidewalk path

Everything becomes a grand puzzle
When you cant bend, when you cant arch
When you can’t squat,
When you can’t lean

That pen that fell behind the chair
Something up high, to bring it down here
After surgery,
You cannot twist

Into a pretzel, the doctor insists
Don’t cross your legs
Keep your toes straight
Like a flamingo, one leg holds all weight

How do you get,
Food to the table
How do you get out of bed
If you feel you’re not able

The surgery drained you
And it drained you good
As weak as the granny
In Red Riding Hood

Dozens of pills
Up to no good
Too many look similar
In the doctor’s brood

Marionette lost the bet
No strings to support her
Stuck with a sliding walker
Thighs of putty over to fret

Oxy and Tram
Make my legs rubber
Don’t play bumper cars
With that kitchen counter

Shoe laces, charging cord
Cats want to play
And they get bored
To the bed, you are bound

Your house now a labyrinth
Stuck in that cornfield
Every step a potential lego
Off to the E.R. you go

I am at that phase
Where my brain
Is going the speed limit
And my body

Is that rusted Edsel
Acting as if
It rolled off
The factory line

This week I dine
On cheap tv dinners
Full hip surgery
And all of it’s pleasures

Pain my sustenance
Hindering my resilience
Objects become my obstacles
Cords and blankets

Become the tentacles
The Broadway’s beacon
Says “Break a leg”
My surgery side

I hear it beg
Slow down
Slow down
Fragile egg

Relearning
The mundane
For granted, I took
My body complains

I slow down to look
For road hazards
On the floor
I’ve dropped

The cap of a pen
Or water bottle top
Everything’s magnified
Like in the movies

Stretching the hallway
6 feet into a football field
That stubborn dust bunny
In front of me refuses to yield

It laughs at me
“Where’s your reacher
That two pronged grip
If you squat down

You’ll need another trip
To that expensive place
That will take every dime
And make you broke