Phoning Lucy
And I forgot to mention lip-reading, or the skill
of making words in the air. Or the small girl
with just one ear who thumbs her nose at those
who jibe…you deaf of something…how she
glares, lifts up her hair and shows them.
Or how you showed me how to see—no tragedy,
no triumph—the accidental everyday of angry gods
who piss our lives up for a laugh, who break our legs,
or take our children close to death. Or how to see you
standing, signing, running, cycling again—both legs
intact, heart, for the most part fixed, and knowing
what to do next time, and each and every blessed time.
Biography: Before Susan Utting graduated from Reading University with a first in English, she worked briefly in The Careers Advisory Service, and then for many years in the Psychology Department. She subsequently taught poetry and creative writing at Reading and Oxford Universities for more than 17 years and now works freelance as workshop leader/mentor and poetry performer. Her fourth, most recent poetry collection, Half the Human Race: New & Selected Poems is published by Two Rivers Press. www.susanutting.com