Amputation Dream

I dreamt I lost my right hand,

a mysterious amputation

while sitting in my chair

half asleep and dreaming

and in this dream within a dream

my hand was suddenly not there,

a painless evaporation

of an old friend

leaving my left hand

alone and searching

with blind fingers and nailed tears

for its departed twin.

 

what is the sound of one hand …?

 

…a silent scream in sinister solitude,

left behind and grieving

though only a helper before,

a practical auxiliary,

holding while the right sliced,

patient while the right painted,

entangled in pillows

while the right caressed

the ecstasies of night.

 

dance partner gone

ten now halved

the ship veers to port

 

how will I now applaud brilliance?

how will I now make art or write?

how will I now be a lover?

fold laundry or reel a fish?

how will I now be symmetrical?

 

I breathe uselessness

through an empty sleeve.

 

acrylic painting and poem by clinock.

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