BRAIN LEAP
after my tutor session
after Yūsuke has left
after dinner
in our room
Cora is furious
when I tell her
where I went
Takemura-san’s? the man with the stick?
why didn’t you take me?
I solved the crime as much as you!
I was the one actually listening to him!
after my bath
Cora tries to keep me out of my our room
hiding my box of international coins
which I search for and know is missing
the second I finally barge in
so I scoop up
stuffed animals as hostages
and go outside to the laundry balcony
and threaten to drop them over the edge
to the dark ground below
she screams
Dad comes up
yells at me
and sends me
downstairs to wash
all the dinner dishes
the rice cooker
and even the smelly
composter pot
when I go up later
Cora is the one who says sorry
so after a while
I sit down in the cave
of her lower bunk
and tell her about
Takemura-san
how sometimes his speech is clear
but other times not
how his mouth scowls
from the Parkinson’s
how he gets stuck
and can’t move
and how his daughter
was there and showed me
how to put my foot
crosswise in front of his
to make his leg think
it has to step up and over I tell Cora
which gets him moving
in our bedroom
I show her the way
that Takemura-san’s feet
seemed glued to the floor
then I make her
put her foot
crosswise to one of mine
and I unstick my foot
and step over
I don’t tell Cora
how weird it felt
being there in a stranger’s house
in the home of a scowling old man
or how at his kitchen table
I wanted to escape
as I listened so hard
but couldn’t understand
even after he repeated words
again and again
until finally his loud daughter came in
the one who’d been standing with
hands on hips after the fire
and served us barley tea
and explained things
like the crosswise foot
and that her father doesn’t smile
because of the disease
and that he looks angry but isn’t
and that it’s okay to ask him
to repeat his words
again and again
and again
it’s like a miracle Cora whispers
your foot making the top of a T
across his foot
the way it makes
his stuck foot think
it can move
I don’t know about a miracle
maybe more like a brain leap
like mind over matter
but then I’m thinking
what if someone’s not with him?
how long does he stay stuck
before his feet
move forward again?