"Myelin" & "Later" by Chesley Walsh
- devongallant
- Apr 7
- 1 min read
Myelin
Balls of dough, pale and pliant like our
fleshy thighs.
A time when touch was possible.
A long drive with your lover
and then
a driving
pain.
A long straight needle
in the spine like the wick
of a candle burning
you down.
A slow eclipse of one life:
Numbness as a torture, a bed as a world.
Passing words back and forth
words to echo touch
(when it was lost)
Medications
too hard
to spell
a feeling
(unspool-
able)
And walls (our limitations)
sometimes so tender,
like the deepest
netting of
nerves.
Later
Later we would
drive up
to the theatre
in my
rusted out car
glide almost
since I never filled
my tank
riding it until the dial
was way below
e
and I’d say
Let’s ride the hills
and pull into neutral
and drift across city streets
until we hit a station
to search for quarters
under the grey mats
put two bucks
in the tank
and feel
like we could handle
anybody’s shit
and maybe
we really could
just then
as happy as we were
riding the hills
and looking
for change.
Chesley Walsh is a writer, musician, researcher, clinical herbalist, community organizer and new parent. She has been performing solo and in projects Big Share, Bent by Elephants, and F in Fresh for over twenty years. Her recent work explores experiences of postpartum trauma, loss and grief.
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