25 Years Living with Stroke

From The Healing Art of Writing, edited by Joan Baranow, PhD, Brian Dolan, PhD & David Watts, MD

DO NOT EDIT
JUST LISTEN

I’ll play by
My rules today
Stop trying to fit in

Shuffling the pages of poems
Passed around the table
Finding the one you are reading
IS hard.

I try anyway
I want to look smart
I really want you to slow down
I need space between all the words

Understanding the words flying around my head
Impossible
It ain’t happening
I listen anyway

I listen in my way

Your words fly around my head like airplanes
There is a place they once landed
Lined up
Made sense

Your words fly around my head like airplanes
This control tower needs them
To land
Slowly