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POEM FOR A SORE LOWER BACK
psoas: one of the two muscles of the loins; flexes thigh; adducts and rotates it.
sacrum: the triangular bone formed of 5 united vertebrae that form the base of the spinal column.
Both definitions are from Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, 1989, 16th edition, editor Clayton L. Thomas, Md., M.P.H., F.A., Davis Company, Philadelphia, PA
October chill has me clenching,
though I stand and stretch, trying to feel
hip bone release and ease
into tail bone and lumbar,
floating rib and psoas muscle
connecting all of me in footstep finding
my way across the face of my world,
this corner of my earth.
But I ache in the movement forward
and in the rest,
ache in the stretch and flex,
ache here in the center of me,
stilted in the radiating out.
Poet tells me lower back and hip bone cradle
is called sacrum,
its kundalini color is bright red.
She says this bough is home of all warrior energy,
fueling the way I fight with my voice
and open hands.
And I say yes:
This bow is the seat of all of my creations,
the birthplace of my fire making form.
This origin serves me well,
and yet, it is tired.
All this fighting I have done.
Even when I am loving, sometimes,
I am fighting to stay in love
in this center of it all,
rocking for balance
like a hinge;
knowing
somewhere between
the back and forth,
clench and release,
ache and thrum,
it is the loving itself,
the strive to stay there,
centered,
that is sacred
within me.
© 2003 Dora E. McQuaid
10/21/2003
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