Gabrielle

To My Former Self

Lucky you

you can stand on two feet

     you don’t sway from side to side

     you can rise from your bed and run

you don’t stagger for hours every morning

holding on to the walls until your brain ‘warms up’

     you can cook your own meals

lucky you

     you can write from left to right

you can read and speak and act in the ‘correct’ sequence

you can open, fill and close a conversation

lucky you

     you can drink alcohol, you can go out at night

you can learn a language

     you can drive a car

     you can get tired without blacking out      

you can work

you can run

lucky you

     you are ‘independent’

you can articulate

     your head is not groggy, all of the time

there is plenty of oxygen

in the air for you

you can think

© Gabrielle S. 2003
Published in “Many Faces Many Lives”