Arlene Corwin writes

Now & Then, How I Miss…

I practice living the Now.

But now and then

I miss the old Arlene 

Who had ten

                    fingers;

Who could play arpeggios 

With ease:

Adagios, capriccios,

Effortlessly

Trouble-free.

Un-nostalgic, chanced to see

And old Youtube of Arlene-me 

Singing, playing“All God’s Chillun” speedily,

Gleeful, musical and jazzy.

Wound up teary-eyed.

With just three left to play with:

Thumb and index on the left, only lonely thumb the right,

Filled with weakness

I can play a swinging bass 

With Monk-like dissonance between,

The right thumb not at all a small dumb finger.

The trick will be to sow creativeness anew.,

Augment, stretch, grow and not go into

Any other place than Now

(if Now at all can be referred to 

                                        as a ‘place’.

I rather think of it as space).

In any case,

I was a little sad today;

The old Arlene who cannot play

The way she used to,

Caused by nature’s vagary.

Dear reader, please forget  

This sentimental, reminiscent “…How I Miss…” 

A useless business at the very least.*

*Arlene Corwin collapsed on August 3rd, 2019. In a coma for a month, when she awoke, there were 4 fingers missing on the right hand, 3 half fingers on the left, and two catheters in one kidney. The cause: Blood poisoning or sepsis (from the ‘sepin’ make rotten). After two months she was home. Muscles shrunken, walking with help she began a regime of sit-ups, pushups, yoga…and using every object in the house as tool now is fully flexible and growing stronger with each day. But the hands, those hands…We’ll see what happens.

https://youtu.be/m4aH1uQxMZA