alive...

the young, the beautiful, the maimed are there
hoping that we will care, or not care enough
to notice or stare at what is pointedly missing

a skateboader; young, bright in his teen years,
traveling diagonally across the busy street
pushing with an aluminum rod his slender body
one leg missing below the knee but not
disguised or hidden but there for all to see

a handsome twenty-something in a wheelchair
swiftly maneuvering the health club floor
pushing to the gym where he will practice shots
a basketball cradled in his lap, the blanket
softly covering the tragic loss of both his legs

the young, the beautiful, the maimed are there
and I am here, a little tattered around the edges
but whole and hale and thankful to be alive