petty excuses have piled up

over overuse,

they made sense at the time,

ringing around

and bound into this wooden crutch

held tight under my armpit.

it’s splintering under my weight

it has been

overused,

i hadn’t measured

how much,

and now my shoulder is

beginning to bruise a nasty brownish blue-

even my body knows

i need to trust my legs

and just

balance.