Qualifying Legs And Life Poem by M.J. Lemon

If you can understand a broken leg,
you can be married.
Maybe

Some people break a leg and they are lost
to despair
(forever)
some people break a leg
and
slowly start living
learning accepting
and even
eventually (silently) thanking

Legs and life are broken

My wife reminded me we were married
about a year, anniversary near,
when I broke my leg rather badly.
I'd chipped cracked stressed bones before and after
but this was serious and kept me in casts for months
for forever
to almost a new year.

She just now mentioned she had always wanted a cast
I remember times when I was broken
a few people telling me how lucky I was
I was
and that they wanted a cast. I think I thought this odd
but
the years have taught me that a broken leg and cast are life.
Maybe everybody wants a cast but only a few say it

A person who wants a cast may be
the type to want something anything and upon getting it finding it
clingy and needy and to be rid of
So it is with marriage that
those who want it want it as some want a cast
but as soon as the marriage settles down
it becomes an albatross and then worse and so
becomes something to be talked out of,
and for some a goal to be avoided.

And so if you have a broken leg
you may find yourself ensnared and uncomfortable
and demanding the cast be cut off
You may start blaming the cast for your problems
actually saying it caused the leg to break
and that it isn't what it said it was
or you can dwell on the healing and
take care of the cast so that it allows you
to go on with life and get through
those days

until you actually are not even aware of the cast

or even the crutches and you coexist with the plaster the fiberglass
just the way you live with your arm or hand or elbow or heart

To paraphrase
We are all broken,
but the psyche or spirit never really heals.
It is only through the intervention and application
of solid support that we go through life and
reach the end in peace and calm, with wisdom received
along the way.

Some receive a cast and learn patience
some have one cast
some have serial casts
or multiple casts
some opt for removable casts
some suffer in their casts
some have them removed
some opt for surgery or
experiment with rods and hardware

Many are destined to need the cast
the cast of life
the cast for life
But do we all accept the cast?
Not all can accept

I adore someone who has endured a cast for decades
- for most of her life-
who says that being bound and wrapped and weighed down
gives her life
So long as I am the crutches
and the cast wills not to unravel
so may there never be need
for hospital plaster of Paris or fiber