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MER – Mom Egg Review
You are at:Home » Dayna Patterson, “Meeting With Prosthetics Unit” – Poetry

Dayna Patterson, “Meeting With Prosthetics Unit” – Poetry

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By Mom Egg Review on September 10, 2024 Poetry

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

 

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