Phantom Pain, An Allegory

Phantom Pain – Part One

He didn’t hear the screeching tires
or the sirens when they came.
As he lay there on the black top
He felt no fear or pain.

He wondered how he got there
In the stillness of this night,
The last thing he remembered
Was the glare of that head light.

And then he looked on down the road
And saw the mangled steel,
The handle bars and spinning tires,
Broken struts and upturned wheels.

In that very instant
He began to feel the pain.
He saw the river of his blood.
Felt his life force as it waned.

Phantom Pain – Part Two

He woke up to a myriad
Of people dressed in white
Who spoke in quiet voices
Like whispers in the night.

And then a kindly doctor
Sat down beside his bed
“There’s no easy way to tell you, son,
The things that must be said.”

“We used every bit of skill we had
To try to save your life
And God was there among us
To guide the hand that held the knife.”

“You’ll live to love another day
and be your mother’s son
But you’ll do it in a different way,
Not with two legs but with one”

The anger festered in his heart
He cursed and cried and swore
As he tried to wrap his brain around
This new adjective he wore.

Handicapped was not a word
That slid gently from his lips
And so he said he wouldn’t be
This was just a little blip.

Phantom Pain – Part Three

First there came a walker
Then crutches two by two
As his broken body mended,
his spirit once again broke through

His new leg finally came to him
Made of steel and wood
Maybe not a real one
But he’s a man and now he stood.

What lingered through the months and years
With no words to explain,
The sudden stabs of agony
Known as phantom pain.

The doctors told of causes and
spoke in scientific terms.
No one said its primal
Your loss must be reaffirmed.

The sudden loss of what was there
and shall never be again
deserves its recognition
like the mourning for a friend

So phantom pain is part of life
The reminder of the loss
Of this sudden separation
And the ache its endless cost.