My leg aches
moans the old woman
rubbing the void.
Phantom pain proves real
enough for her,
loss of limb
shocking nerve and tissue
a fit subject for grief
despite prevention
which requires pruning
gangrenous blight.
What was there is not.
No hope for healing,
restoration, or redemption.
Merely mortal, she mourns
what some would say is best forgot.
— SuzAnne Cole
SuzAnne C. Cole, former college English instructor, writes from a studio in the Texas hill country. Her poems have been published in anthologies and commercial and literary journals including Blood Lotus, SVJ, Binnacle, The Tule Review, and Ars Medica. Her fiction and poetry have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes.