The Off-Hand and the Opposable Member

A natal preference of side, which thumb you sucked, which eye you shut
when you trained to site a rifle, the hand that learned to write.

If you were lucky you were encouraged to become a switch hitter. With practice
even handedness can be acquired, latent neural pathways activated.

The right hand presents the injury you can see. A joint swollen, painfully truculent
after fighting one too many pickle jars. It is time to reconsider,

to become ambidextrous. The off-side has its own issues, and has no patience
with the hen scratch it produces. The penmanship of a second grader

practicing cursive while aspiring to an excruciating offhand finesse.
I offer new tools: left-handed scissors, left-handed knives.

But the off-hand is irritated. A certain tingling, a serrated edginess
defying explanation.

It is easily baffled and slow to move, but more thoughtful in its expression.
Every act consciously shaped.

A note from the left hand:
the weight of the day slackens the resolve in the exhausted limbs, a tired
full of pain, full of ache. Even the bright child of the brain is ready for a nap.

Words the left hand likes to write:
cat, John, poem, book, hope, wish, star.

Marilyn Ringer received a BA in Social Sciences and an MA in Experimental Psychology, both from Southern Methodist University. She has been a chef and restaurateur, a poet-teacher with California's Poets In The Schools, and a teacher of adult creative writing workshops. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Nimrod, Wisconsin Review, The MacGuffin, Poet Lore, Slant, Iodine Poetry Journal, and California Quarterly, among others. Her work has also appeared in An Anthology: Monhegan in Poetry, 2000-2002, The Art of Monhegan Island, and Chico Poets, A Calendar for 2005. Her chapbook, Island Aubade, will be released by Finishing Line Press in mid-May.