Skinny Ribs
Mum used to call me
when I was a boy
in the bath
at the beach
in the backyard all summer long
Though skinny
those ribs
did their job
year after year
protecting my inside world –
heart, lungs, kidneys –
from the outside world –
the bruises and bumps of life
Five decades I’ve been pedalling
to school
to uni
to work
to the shops
to beaches
Just moseying along
No lycra, no flash bike
Just the joy of moving
Every day
The sky above
The road below
The skinny ribs
working their wonders
Five decades
Hardly a bruise or a bump
Hardly a scratch
Until, briefly distracted,
Gazing a fraction too long
at a stretch of beach
I plough into a road sign
Broken ribs
The doctor at Emergency said
Six weeks
A suspension of sorts
‘A fracturing
of the posterolateral aspect
of the left 4th rib’
the x-ray report said
‘and the lateral aspect
of the 5th left rib
with minor displacement’
Ten days on
I carefully walk to the shore
Slowly peel off my T-shirt
Stand waist deep in the water
and think of Mum
as the ribs soak up the sun
Vin Maskell is from Australia and runs the fabulous site and music-lit concert series Stereo Stories.
Vin Maskell is from Australia and runs the fabulous site and music-lit concert series Stereo Stories.
- Vin Maskellhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/vin-maskell/
- Vin Maskellhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/vin-maskell/
- Vin Maskellhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/vin-maskell/
- Vin Maskellhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/vin-maskell/
- Vin Maskellhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/vin-maskell/
I hope you mend soon Vin and I’m glad it wasn’t a worse outcome
Great poem, but not such a great outcome. Minor comfort to know I’m not the only one who breaks bones coming off a bike.
Exploring the dry British Columbia Central Interior on my bicycle, unskilled, I came down a gravel slope too steep, went over frontwards and landed on my backpack, unfortunately with just my camera in it, and cracked a couple of ribs. Camera was okay, sort of. Sixty-five years old.
There was a young boy from Moggs Creek
Near the beach he took too much of a peek
His bike just kept going
Without really knowing
That it’s rider even had a posterolateral aspect that he should be taking much more care of…..and also, it is very difficult to put it in a poem because nothing rhymes with it!