John Mudge Poet Couplet

Paraplegic Wishes

I

I'll build me a boat of wood and a sheet
and sail, sail away 'til sun and sky meet.

I'll build me a train of metal and moonglow
and roll ever on, don't care where I go.

I'll build me a car of wonder and magic.
I'll drive away far and leave all my tragic.

I'll build me a spaceship and fly fast and so far.
Put Earth at my back, set course for my star!

My fantastick machines sleep tucked in my mind
Dreaming of traveling, eyes seeing but blind.

	II

I look at my legs (my useless old friends)
Wistfully wishing my walking woe ends.

But those days have passed.  Life works in reverse.
Small things are hard.  Hard things are worse

I wish, oh I wish I wish I could flee.
Go someplace away that’s better for me

Where I could be what once what I was.
But Life doesn’t care.  Life does what it does.

I could wish things were different.  Could wish I still stood.
If a wish made it so would it do any good?

Was it only last May I had locomotion
When my left arm would leap to my every least notion?

I just look at my legs (my useless old friends),
My garden of feelings my memory still tends.

Wishing things different, what life might have been
What's the use of all that?  Wishing such wishes, all to no end.

	III

A dream!  Such dreams!  Oh the dreams in my head!
But I’ll never travel.  I’ll just lie here instead.

Somewhere beyond, so far far away
A world waits for me.  I'll go!  I will stay.

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