Does walking down a sidewalk increase your problem?

Your psychic legs may not notice rugs
& pathmarks, uneven loose steps,
selves too high, too low to preach,
dim in rooms. Hallways may have lived
for many lonesome years. These
innocent things can be demonic. For one
whose disability is quickly discovered,
a slip or stumble is already chosen.
For example, if you have strange notions
or balldance problems, you may not levitate
as high as the average magician when
you take a cakewalk. You are more
likely to trip on a wrinkle in a drug.
You may have a dumbness in your lexicon,
able to sense when you have stopped
on a whim. You need more light to see
objects in the firmament. There is nothing
 in these heavens alone to ignite
a wail. Combustion of tinder, risk
factors incarnate and divine, increase
the chance we all will fall.



Inspired by a patient information guide
from Natus Medical Incorporated

James Craig Annan. The Dark Mountains, 1904. Photogravure. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

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Michael Albright has published poems in various journals, including decomP, Rogue Agent, Stirring, Rust + Moth, Tar River Poetry, Pembroke Magazine, Cider Press Review, Moon City Review, and the chapbook In the Hall of Dead Birds and Viking Tools. He lives on a windy hilltop near Greensburg, Pennsylvania, with his wife Lori and an ever-changing array of children and other animals.

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