“To my Right Arm” by D’Arcy Briggs
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “To my Right Arm” by D’Arcy Briggs.
To my Right Arm
By D’Arcy Briggs
I have an arm that often speaks for me.
Every time someone asks, “What happened?”
I feel like a translator without the words.
“Nothing happened,”
But their eyes already hold a headline,
their gaze narrating me into the kind of story
that gets told with a tilted head and
a “you’re so brave” at the end.
When I was nine, a classmate called me a bird with a broken wing.
It’s not entirely untrue, but it wasn’t nice either.
Back then, I thought birds only flew to prove they could,
like flight was a dare they had to keep accepting.
I grew up learning how to carry it,
the weight of assumptions,
the way strangers would offer pity
like loose change they’d never miss.
What they don’t know
is how I’ve learned to hold joy in the crook of this arm,
how it cradles victories:
carrying groceries,
clipping my nails,
lifting someone else up
when they think their pain is too heavy.
Some days, I catch myself staring too.
In the mirror, I trace the silhouette of my body
like I’m trying to map the places I’ve learned to love but never visited.
It’s not always easy.
Sometimes, I forget that the arm I wanted to hide
is the same arm that taught me strength doesn’t need symmetry.
That wings aren’t broken
just because they don’t fly like the others.
When people ask now, I tell them:
I was born this way.
Because everyone carries something.
My arm just holds it out loud
Copyright © D’Arcy Briggs
D’Arcy Briggs (he/they) is a disabled improviser and performer based out of ‘Victoria,’ BC, Canada. They are a member of The Bakery as well As Burger & Briggs. This is their first published work of poetry and feel honoured to be presented with so many other amazing contributors.
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