Amputee - Intellectual

I am a trilobite

Scrambling on ancient ocean floors

Trailing a cloud of blood

Beckoning to eager carnivores

Dragging my heavy carapace

Up unfamiliar sandy shores

Blinking in blinding light, my vision blurred, unfocused

The beating sun fortifies defenses

Bones will mend. Blood will clot

Scars remind. I will adjust

I will

Fight! Survive! Fuck! Evolve!

Our tribulations are not packaged big and small

For what one of us stands to burden, another can’t lift at all

So when I say “I only lost an inch that day”

If you read between the lines I speak, you’ll see my disarray

Addiction! Depression! Prescriptions! Correction!

What happens in a blink cost hours under the knife

And thе surgery undoes the work I’vе been building all my life

At the bottom of the bottle

Whether alcohol or opiate

Fight! Survive! Fuck! Evolve!

Brave a never-ending battle

When a bullet seems appropriate

Fight! Survive! Fuck! Evolve!

I am a troglodyte huddling around a dying flame

I am a divorceé, cowering embarrassed and ashamed

I am an amputee waking in recovery room beds

Blinking in blinding light, my vision blurred unfocused

So I drink myself under tables

And I celebrate with friends

Because I stared Death in her yellow eyes

And I swore this ain’t the end

Because I’ve tasted bitter failure

And I faced my greatest fear

So when I sing along to my favorite songs

I know “I’m still fucking here!”