Back Row (Andrew Hall)

Bowling Shoes

I just remembered today that when I was a kid,
whenever we went bowling, I used to wear bowling shoes.

They would all change into theirs,

then Dad would take off my three-year-old trainers
with the perfect soles, and put on the bowling shoes —

never to touch the ground.

Those shoes had never had it so easy
in their blue and red bowling life!

They’d just sit there on my footplate

as I positioned the roller ramp.

It’s amazing what a person will do
to fit in; even wear bowling shoes.

Cripple Contradictions, Part…

The guy who invented the bendable straw was a genius;
now, he’s a murderer of turtles.
And I can’t drink out in restaurants.

Back Row

My local cinema has a special place for wheelchairs:
it’s at the back, in between the actual seats.

It’s raised up slightly and there’s a steel bar
locking us in because the Norms
have to be kept safe from the Crips —
caged animals!

My popcorn gets passed to me under the barrier
as I sit in my separated steel cinema stable box,

watching a love story on the screen.

 


Andrew Hall is a ginger-haired disabled writer from Lancashire, United Kingdom, who uses this unique perspective to slap his everyday experiences onto the table for everyone to see, whilst maintaining a sense of dry humour and whimsy in the mucky, sticky process. He has been published in Magma Poetry and can be found on Twitter