February 2022
Bio Note: I am a Professor of Animal Ecology at the University of Georgia. I enjoy poetry, running, fishing, gardening, songwriting and singing as well as sculpting. My recent poetry credits include V-V, Trouvaille Review, Poetry Life and Times, Last Stanza Poetry Review and Black Poppy Review, and I am currently working on fictional memoirs in both graphical and text formats.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Hands punching decades on keyboards, and
An old IBM Selectric. On even days
My fingers tremble and on odds
Numbness holds their pruney tips.
“Occupational hazard” they
Say. The Muse always has her price.
Shaking a brainy head, my Doc
Decides “Not yet” to surgery, and
Assigns homework telling me “Find a
Strong rubber band, insert fingertips,
Then force them open, over and
Over again. My own tiny pulsar star.
On a whim, I discover the
Perfect band secures the weekly
Bouquet, that I bring my beloved.
In spring, budded pink roses,
Tangerine lilies in summer, ruby
Mums in fall, and winter is potluck.
Lagniappe, these rubber circles. White
Or purple, width barely half an
Inch, surprisingly tensile. I
Insert five bussing fingertips in
The band, expanding and contracting,
My hand now a dancing crab.
Every night, I make the crab plie
30 times, and it is working. My
Hands now stable as Rodin’s
Aptly named “Cathedral”. 1908
Bronze of two lightly kissing
Hands. This a sculptor’s affliction too.
Such linkage – writing, to compressed
Nerves, to roses, to rubber bands
To physical therapy, and back
To stronger hands. Look closely,
The world is more connected
Than it seems.
©2022 Gary Grossman
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