padha

today in chair pose

i behold the miracle of my toes.

ten digits perfectly

perfused

articulate

sensory

stable.

yesterday, i did behold the miracle of feet anew

doughy and soft as a roux.

i checked for upgoing toes, then traced

with wonder

the pattern etched on his soles, the likes of which this world has

yet somehow

never known.

tomorrow i will behold the horror of diabetic feet,

rotting appendages, skin broken in patches like moldy craters in an orange peel forgotten in the back of the refrigerator for months.

these toes can’t transmit the joy of wiggling in grass wet with morning dew.

tomorrow my heart will be heavy holding the knowledge that

these toes were once anew

this fate was undue.

i won’t be a doctor who fails to teach

how to protect

the miracle of these toes.