Growth

All my life I've strived for strength, whether it helped or harmed

And cultivated its varietals, both those tender and their cousins hard

I have so hated being helpless, despised every place I had a lack

Have loathed every day as "novice", or as a burden on another's back.

Brought low now by reparation, by mending sinews needing time

Able to do only so little and chafing at each stone-drawn line.

Halting at any moment to take more care than I would choose

To affix a clumsy exoskeleton before I can begin to move

For my legs shake and are feeble, like a womb-wet foal

Awkward now in gait as well as nature though poise has been my lifelong goal

Impatient, frightened, relieved, determined, I can't claim to be just one of these

Here my experiences fail me; can't I just do as I please?