Patricia M Osborne

B  – Broken Bone in Bucuresti 

This is another poem of mine and tells the tale of when I broke my  hip back in 2014 on the stairs of a Romanian underground while on a course with Brighton University as part of my MA in Creative Writing. Broken Bone in Bucaresti was written about eighteen months later when I tried to make light of my accident. It was first published in Writing Magazine and later on OAPSchat website.

Enjoy.

 

Broken Bone in Bucuresti

Racing to catch
a Nicolae Grigorescu,
Metro train, I stumble
down a stair:

I hear the snap—

throbs screech in my groin,
my voice is alien.

Heads fold around me,
I turn
away
to avoid their stare,
my eyes clench. I throw up.

Someone presses my wrist,
someone else holds my hand.

Jabbering in code,
little green men
ease me onto a stretcher,

elevate me, feet first,
towards cold blue sky—

fists scrunch,
heart skips double-unders—

 

The bone cutter
roars,
splinters
scatter,
rivets
groan,
screws
tighten.

 

Six days lost in a strange land:
frail attempts at iPad translation
cue howls of laughter.

I hobble flamingo style,
sticks at my side, into a mad-driver’s bubble
on an endless terror ride.

On board the plane at last,
I reclaim my breath—

Feast on a cheese roll and white wine—
Let the healing begin.