Gary Winters

WHEELCHAIR BLUES

I know you mean well
when you spot my wheels
and make a mad dash
to the swinging door
in your goodness haste
and we do a dance
me giving you room
to maneuver so
I back-wheel aside
and allow you to
do your day's good deed
help a crippled vet
you open the door
I use every time
I come to clinic
and feel rather proud
I do it myself
with two-handed drive
a swivel and lurch
then zoom right on through
like an offshore breeze
and keep on sailing
but you don't know that
as you open wide
and stand there grinning
waving me on through
smiling traffic cop

I try to smile too
but it's really hard
'cause if I blast through
I'll run right over
your shiny new shoes

Gary Winters is a former United States Marine; a life member of DAV and PVA. "Wheelchair Blues" won an award from African American Writers & Artists, Inc. of San Diego in 2008. He has been published in San Diego Writers, Ink's 2008 anthology A Year in Ink - Volume 2, Mensa International Journal, Literary Liftoff, Lucidity, Your Royalty Note, The Writer's Life, , and was an unpublished chapbook finalist in the 2008 San Diego Book Awards. Boyne Berries in Ireland published "The Lion's Tooth" in 2008. Ireland! Imagine that.