A Return To A Natural Gait Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

I stopped the biting of my lips,
When my cheeks began to get sore...
From the turning of them,
From one to the other.
With a feeling that my neck,
Had been exercised enough.

And in the doing of such,
I've learned so much...
About the having of unappreciated patience.
And toes crushed from being stepped on.
Some believed I had added swagger to my walk.
Not true.
I was in the process of healing a foot.

Biting lips, turned cheeks and crushed toes...
Eventually have their way,
Of opening a mouth kept closed.
To announce in intentional offensive ways,
Days that have ended a patience taken for granted.
And...
A return to a natural gait with a smoothened stride.