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ARTS AND CULTURE

The red wheelchair

  • 06 October 2015
Legbreak

Leg Break White on black negative image fractured bone. Right leg side-lined internal plate and pins surgically implanted in my right ankle under spinal anaesthetic. Numb from waist to toe I am yet a watchful listener at my operation. A nurse takes my glasses so nothing I can now see is as hard-edged as the banter of male medico voices and the surgeon calling shot, shot. I begin to imagine I am forever trapped in an episode of M*A*S*H longing to escape.       The red wheelchair after William Carlos Williams' 'The Red Wheelbarrow'   so much depends upon   a red wheel chair   lined with black canvas   beside the front doorstep.   even more depends upon   two ramps to convey a   red wheel chair   into the world outside.   so much depends upon   a black moon boot   crossed with Velcro straps keeping the leg   immobile in the red wheelchair.

Sue Cook's poems have been published in literary magazines and online. Her first book of collected poems, In Focus, will be published in early 2016 by Ginninderra Press. A teacher of senior English for 17 years, she edited Spring Poetry Festival for the South Australian English Teachers Association for seven years.
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