“Young Woman In A Wheelchair”

Young woman in a wheel chair

When my despair searches 

In the eyes of strangers 

For a taste of healing recognition,

Or when the symptoms of my loneliness 

Have progressed to the point 

That most evenings, 

I look from my apartment window 

Down into the kitchen of the apartment across from mine Just to partake in the way 

They as a couple, prepare dinner together. 

Pitifully, I imagine it could be me 

Chopping the fresh vegetables and sharing a laugh 

About some trivial event from my day... 

And  even though I am ashamed to admit 

I do this voyeuristic lonely charade 

From the looking glass of my apartment window;

When I observe you wheeling through a city intersection 

In the solitary confinement of your thoughts, 

And that chair, 

I am sure my sadly pathetic game 

Would be something you would dismiss 

As perhaps, the best part of your day. 

For the ocean of longing in the heart of a beautiful girl 

With a shining smile and a pretty face is so great 

That human happiness is just an empty vase 

Longing for a bouquet of flowers,

It doesn't even know 

How much it is missing-

And to the god, who created the female creature

To laugh, dance, sing and seductively draw us in 

With her magnificent charms,

I want to tell you 

That I hate you with every once of feeling and life 

I have coursing in my blood and flesh

For imprisoning some little girls 

To the charmless, sexless existence of a chair-

And Men such as me

Should tuck their  broken little romantic hearts In shame, 

For the pity it rolls around in- 

copyright marc daniels --April 17, 2012 (Philadelphia, PA)