Michael Laskey led an interesting workshop ‘Writing the Self’ in October 2009. In one of the exercises we were asked to write about parts of our bodies, and this was my contribution:
Knees, architects of the upright posture
practiced artisans of the skill of sitting
hidden since puberty, taken for granted.
Abused in my forties on the downhill runs
those health obsessive activities
that calcified my cartilages.
Ambushed, from a fall on steps
but flushed, by keyhole surgery.
Successful protestors of my excess weight,
we must synchronise in these later years,
we can evade the need to kneel
you can bear the eight mile walks,
jointly we can stand the age.
