Dayna Patterson
Meeting with the Prosthetics Unit
They are careful
to use the words
residual limb
and
sound limb
never
stump
or
good leg
always
prosthetic
and never
fake
we heft
the fake leg
made of metal
and molded plasticine
a socket
for the stump
it’s heavier
than we imagined
but then they remind us
a leg is heavy
They talk of phantom
pain and sensation
how they use a mirror
placed between the thighs
to trick the brain
the sound limb
flexing and stretching
while the amputee
looks at its reflection
They talk about soreness
of sit bones
how it feels like
riding a bicycle
and how she’ll start slow
if this is what she chooses
30 minutes in a day
then a few more the next
They talk about
compression socks
and custom fabrics
for the top socket
They show us how
the knee bends
with pressure and angle—
clever contraption
A fake foot
doesn’t need to be flesh
-colored or have raised veins
but there must be
something foot-shaped
for the sock, for the shoe
Dayna Patterson is the author of O Lady, Speak Again and If Mother Braids a Waterfall, both from Signature Books. She collaborated with Susan Alexander, Luther Allen, Jennifer Bullis, and Bruce Beasley to produce a poetry collection of interwoven poems, A Spiritual Thread. She received the Association for Mormon Letters Poetry Award, and two of her poems appear in Best Spiritual Literature, 2023. daynapatterson.com