In the key of crunching cartilage,
embedded in a melody of broken hips,
wrapped in a base line of nuts and bolts,
metal syncopated to eruptions
of pain up steep and narrow stairs,
grey and receding memories line
the corridor of this old house.
it and I, we still remember
the creaking of painful harmonies,
storms approaching and penetrating
these walls from the inside out,
we breathe an asthmatic crescendo
in time with the wind and the rain,
in search of the day’s weary dusk,
breaking silence, rusty joints fall
down, clanking like jazz riffs…
listen closely to the baa-buh-bum, baa-buh-bum
of a heart struggling to keep pace with a
life song still alive in soft vertebrae and joints,
eroded, worn, and rhythmically crying out in
slowing echoes to the cacophony of our own mortality.
Contributing Writer Emeritus
Ohio State University College of Medicine
Sophia is a member of the Class of 2015 at Ohio State University College of Medicine.