Written after scheduling surgery to my elbows
The ulna, the arm’s longest bone,
is capped with a curved bony eminence,
the olecranon. There the elbow
becomes a lever for the extensor muscles.
The prominent lip holds the humerus,
its companion bone. A third bone,
the radius, stretches from elbow to wrist.
A fibrous joint capsule surrounds the bones
in a synovial hinge like a cocoon.
The combination of a hinge with a ball-and-socket
gives the elbow its prowess:
flexion, extension, pronation, supination.
It’s really quite sentimental.
The elbow opens like a door, builds
a plinth for an altar where the ruins
will reassemble into prayer.
It is teaching us how to connect:
not a diminishing but a bundling.
A cup here; a path there;
a broken lock waiting
breathless for its healing key.
