It looks like something more exotic,
perhaps more naughty, than it is:
a simple x-ray after reparative surgery.
I am become a compound thing
of flesh and bone surrounding
titanium capped in polished cobalt chrome
on the humerus (arm) side,
while teflon restores the well-worn socket
of the glenoid (body) side.
The brief black line in the teflon
is a metal pin inserted
purely for x-ray reading,
for the surgeon’s reckoning,
because the plastic is, like flesh, invisible.
Three weeks since the surgery
plus three weeks more to go
of wearing the sling, all night, all day.
Three months minimum of physical therapy
and then as good as new, maybe,
at least without the wincing and weird sound
of bone grinding bone, wearing both bones down.
Fascinating and wonderful, it is truly,
and gratitude-inducing
except during sulky bouts of self pity
and instances of genuine pain.
Must I really have to learn so much
it was never my intention to know?