Obedience

Several years ago when I began to get alarmed about my waning strength I took several steps to retain fitness. One was to buy a ball to do exercises on. Of course my problem was the onset of my muscular degeneration. The ball was put to many uses as one of my poems illustrates.

Obedience

The three-year-old is small, compact
& incredibly flexible. I’m slow, circumspect
& spectacularly inflexible. She discovers
“the big, blue, bouncy ball”. Elders take
turns to hold her hands or legs as
she gleefully trampolines & rolls.

Then she invents a game, Snow White.
An apple bite, she’s asleep & the handsome
prince - her father – prances up on his blue
steed to wake her with a kiss. Then it’s
my turn. Flattered – I’d never been called
a prince before & slightly embarrassed
she’s so rapt in her role; innocent
unaware, in thrall to an ancient myth.

Three quarters-envious, I do as
as I’m told. And do it again as ordered.