Like a Fallen Feather
What if the ableism
heaped higher upon me
the sicker I become,
figments of a
poisoned imagination
suffocating my own,
an anchor of shame
not mine to carry,
what if
– for even just this moment –
I released it completely?
What if I could hold
the disabled parts of me
in my own two hands
the way one holds a fallen feather?
Its soft, delicate, lightness
born on this wing to soar or
when wounded, when wounded
to rest in the warm shelter
of the nest as long as need be,
dreaming of the demise of a culture
that quickens, wishes our own
reborn as a community of care,
where pain is seen, tended,
not hidden and held alone,
where the body, not a tool
but a keeper of wisdom
not meant to die
untold, unheard.
Tim Murphy (he/him) is a disabled, bisexual attorney, environmentalist and poet who lives in Portland, Oregon. His writing explores disability and the natural world. Tim’s poetry is featured in CERASUS Magazine, Writers Resist, and The Long COVID Reader. You can find him on Instagram and Twitter (@brokenwingpoet).