The Amputee

Did you ever lose someone and feel like you'd lost one of your own limbs?

The Amputee  

The amputee lies awake in an invalid bed.
A cloud of tattered moths
arc and peck,
a smear of ghosts
on a hot bare bulb.

Dismembered kisses
trace shivery arcs
in blood light,
curved needles lace
pursed lips,
eyes trailing smoldering threads
drawing the wound closed.

Wing dust sputters
on the imprisoned tongue
as the amputee lies awake
in an invalid bed.

The memorable crowd of flesh,
a still animate ache
in lost limbs;
phantom twinges under a flat sheet
play little piggie in limbo
as the amputee lies awake
in an invalid bed
next to the empty sag
in the mattress.

The lopped torso is a ouija board
where the knocking spirit
spells out its cabala
in an alphabet
of unscratchable itches
as the amputee lies awake in an invalid bed.

Like the fist of the lost hand
that will never unclench,
the pins and needles
of an embrace
forever torn
prick the skin below the stumps,
writing
in invisible tattoos
songs of lamentation,
and swarms of angels
dance in time
to the flutter
of her telltale heart,
and sing her to her rest
as the amputee lies awake on her invalid bed.

•  Rain is falling

  and thunder is rolling here in Oklahoma; I feel twinges as the storm comes on.

  by The Reverend and Doctor Omed on Thu Jul 12, 2007 at 07:56:16 AM PDT

•  I have used that metaphor

  to describe the loss ofmy first husband--an amputation of the soul.  You almsot can't breathe because it hurts so much.

  by irishwitch on Thu Jul 12, 2007 at 08:21:22 AM PDT

  •  The loss

    of a loved one--amputation of the soul, that's it precisely. You lose some part of yourself and you can't get it--or grow it--back.

    by The Reverend and Doctor Omed on Thu Jul 12, 2007 at 09:41:07 AM PDT

    •  No, it never returns.

      They take it with them to the SUmmerland. I have lost a husband, grnadpartents who lived with us my whole life, and a husband, and several cats.

      by irishwitch on Thu Jul 12, 2007 at 10:47:03 AM PDT

•  I've lost a leg. I've lost relationships.

  I found other relationships.

  (I'm not offended by the metaphor, I just think it is limited in its applicability.)

  by homogenius on Thu Jul 12, 2007 at 08:35:42 AM PDT

  •  I'm glad you're not offened

    I hate to give offense when I intend none.

    Robert Frost said somewhere that you have to know the limits of metaphor, how far you can go with it before it breaks down--where it breaks down is where it gets interesting.

    As I've said elsewhere:

    The aim of metaphor is to make the sum of our falsehoods equal truth.  After all, a metaphor does not compare two things that are akin or alike; it compares two things that are essentially and incontrovertibly unlike.  It is in the gap in the broken equals sign between that a tiny spark of light arises.

    The Sermon on the Metaphor: Living by Fiction
    An Apology for Atheism and Poetry

    by The Reverend and Doctor Omed on Thu Jul 12, 2007 at 09:48:14 AM PDT