Try this at Home – Gimp Club

Gimp Club

There are 27

bones in my right hand.

Nineteen in my left.

Symbrachdactlyly

is the name of this

disorder.   It could be

amniotic band syndrome.

In the Gimp Club,

all of us are

missing

bones

fingers

a hand or

hands

some

prehensile strength

the thumb that opposes

legs

leg

foot

toe

eye

or

a part of our mind.

There are 13

islands in the Galapagos

13 beans in the soup

Some people have 13 fingers

three extra, for no

discernable reason.

Polysyndactlyly.

Extra digits. 

Thirteen is an unlucky number

But it is better to have

a spare thumb

or pinky,

than only a thumb.

Some fingers are fused.

One in a hundred people are born

wrong or broken.  Others get

broken along the way.

We are drunks mostly. 

That is what we do together,

drink. We drink

dismiss

release

provide absolution.

We carry burdens

on hearts

that cannot be held

in our grasp.

We’d clasp hands

with you

but cannot.

We’d clap

enthusiastically

if you

performed

but we know

the sound

of the one hand

clapping.

-

Try This At Home – An Anthology Chapbook of The Diverse Voices Writing Group, 2019