Sonnet for my left hip

I felt an ache that sleeping could not drown.
It ran from my left hip joint to my mind—
nagged at my thinking as I drove to town.

All night I’d shifted in my thin nightgown
to find a pose to rest in. Now I find
pain stabs me climbing up or reaching down.

Why does this symptom, heavy as a stone,
quicken to a darkness for my mind
to niggle at? It’s likely just a bone

That calcified and brought my mind around
to fears of diminution. We’re all destined
for aching as the world is round,

Though I can’t find the words to tell you how
it hurts, or why it came, or what it feels like now.

Luci Shaw
The Slow Pleasures