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

All poems are copyrighted by Luci Shaw.
To be reprinted only by permission of the author.