Breaking Your Leg in Four Places

The pins in your hip the size of roofing nails.

Your femur fractured twice, once at the top

and again in the middle. Your patella cracked

under the strain. Then your ankle snapped.

Though it might have gone the other way:

from gas pedal contact on up. Take your pick,

you’re fucked. And your other foot mangled,

too, crushed where the toes come together

at the arch. No more tennis, the bone doc

quips, unless your partner is no good. (Though

a pro would feed you forehands in the center

of the court.) How about dancing? Well, maybe

in a while. Let’s take it one step at a time.