I am twelve or thereabouts,
standing in shorts and top
in a hospital physio room
wide as an open mouth.
Six white coats in training
troop in, take notes:
She is…she has…
Walk forwards. Now stand straight.
You can see she has a flexed gait.
I am a classic example, apparently,
but I hadn’t revised for this exam
and my name is left blank.
Thirty years on or thereabouts.
Another hospital physio room.
Will I be able to walk again without my sticks?
No – falls to the floor. I leave it there.
At the edge of my vision an older man
takes tiny steps. He turns to the right, proudly.
It has taken him six weeks.
Turning left is harder. He wants to keep going.
This is his last session.
His wife takes him home.
.
Tanya Parker
Picture Nick Victor
Tanya won the Yorkshire Open Poetry Competition in 2008 and the Rydale Competition in 2013. She was Reviews Editor for Dream Catcher Magazine for five years and has poetry published in Orbis, Acumen, Other Poetry and Poetry Nottingham, amongst others. She appeared as guest writer on Helen Burke’s radio show ‘Word Salad’ for East Leeds FM (twice) and has performed in International Women’s Week with Real People Theatre. Tanya performed with Rose Drew in ‘She’s the Cultured One’ at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2011, at the Galtres Festival in July 2013 and a specially-commissioned show at the Keats Shelley House in Rome in May 2014. Her first full-length poetry collection ‘The Problem with Beauty’ appeared with Stairwell Books in September 2015. She is currently working on an M.A in Creative Writing with Leeds Trinity University.
.