03-19-2024
Jim Ferris
POET OF CRIPPLES
Let me be a poet of cripples,
of hollow men and boys groping
to be whole, of girls limping toward
womanhood and women reaching back,
all slipping and falling toward the cavern
we carry within, our hidden void,
a place for each to become full, whole,
room of our own, space to grow in ways
unimaginable to the straight
and the narrow, the small and similar,
the poor, normal ones who do not know
their poverty. Look with care, look deep.
Know that you are a cripple too.
I sing for cripples; I sing for you.
FROM THE SURGEONS: DRS. SOFIELD, LOUIS, HARK, ALFINI, MILLAR,
BAEHR, BEVAN-THOMAS, TSATSOS, ERICSON, AND BENNAN
6-10-60. History. This child is the second of three
children—the other two are perfectly normal. He was the product
of a normal pregnancy and delivery. At birth it was noted
that the left lower extremity was shorter than the right. The child
had a fragmentation and rodding of the left femur
for stimulation of bone growth. Prior to that procedure a 2” discrepancy
existed. This procedure was repeated in 1957 and again in 1958. Prior
to the procedure in 1958 a 2” discrepancy was again noted. The child’s
early development was normal. He has, of course, been periodically set back
in his physical progress because of the surgical procedures.
6-10-60. Physical Examination. Head: There is nothing
abnormal about the head. Left lower extremity: There appears
to be only a very moderate degree of atrophy in the left thigh, but
this is explainable on the basis of his surgical procedures.
Gait is moderately abnormal but caused only
by the leg length discrepancy.
7-28-61. History. He began sitting at six months of age, walked
at one year, and began talking at about one year of age. There have been
some periods of regression following the early surgical procedures. The boy
is attending school and is apparently well adjusted.
7-28-61. Physical Examination. Examination reveals a slight
compensatory scoliosis. This is corrected by equalization of leg lengths.
This boy walks with a left short leg limp. He is able to run without difficulty,
and can hop on his right foot, but he is unable to hop on his left foot.
When performing the duck waddle his left leg leads the right.
12-7-62. Neurological Examination. Deep tendon reflexes
are physiological. There is a slight diminution of the left knee jerk
as contrasted with that on the right. No sensory loss nor pathologic reflexes.
8-28-63. Progress Notes. The mother relates that the boy has been
stumbling more and more in recent weeks. His quadriceps are
quite weak, probably from the multiple surgical procedures
done on this thigh. Quadriceps are rather bound down at the knee.
The leg length discrepancy is 3” and it is very difficult
to have a satisfactory shoe lift on this dimension. A long leg brace
was ordered with knee locks and with a 2” pylon extension.
11-8-63. Progress Notes. This boy has received his long leg brace
with the caliper extension today. The brace is satisfactory,
except for the fact that the ankle joint is rigid and
he has a great deal of difficulty getting his trousers on and off
and needs to split the seams.
8-14-64. Progress Notes. This child who is almost 10 years of age
is wearing a long leg brace with a stilt on it, but the mother says
that he objects to this and apparently is undergoing considerable
emotional disturbance. The mother has noticed this since his return
from the hospital at which time he had a repeat fragmentation and rodding.
4-7-67. Physical Examination. Lower extremities: Circumference:
There is obvious atrophy of the left thigh: This cannot
be accurately compared with the right because of the shortness
of the extremity and the dislocation of the patella.
6-6-69. History. The child is in the ninth grade and does fair
and goes to a regular school.
10-30-70. Progress Notes. Final Discharge. The patient is essentially
unchanged since last visit. His leg lengths measured to the heel
on the right measures 101 and 86 on the left from the anterior superior
iliac spine. He has occasional episodes of pain. He is still
wearing the long leg brace with the high lift below
and there was no indication on the mother’s part that she plans
on having anything done in the near future.
LEARNING THE ROPES
Evenings when the Boy Scouts come we tie knots.
Bowline. Half hitch. Two half hitches. Clove hitch.
Running knot, rolling hitch, overhand, square.
Slip knot, sheepshank, sheet bend. The granny knot
is a screwed-up square knot. The scoutmasters
all look alike in their bile-green shirts
as they minister to our need for knots.
We are their good deed for the day. I am
back in Shriners so many times I earn
three Tenderfoot pins but quickly I
forget most of the knots. When I look up
knot in the dictionary I find
a surgeon’s knot. We never learned that.
Mostly I remember the square knot,
the slip knot—holding back, and slipping free.
-from The Hospital Poems, Main Street Rag Press, 2004, selected by Spring 2024 PoemoftheWeek.com Guest Editor, Sheila Black
Poet, performance artist, and disability studies scholar, Jim Ferris is the author of Slouching Towards Guantanamo (Main Street Rag, 2011). A long-time professor of disability studies, Ferris has served as president of the Society for Disability Studies and the Disabled & D/deaf Writers Caucus. He has received numerous awards for performance and mathematics as well as for poetry and creative nonfiction.
Ferris was born in Illinois. During childhood, he was in and out of hospitals as doctors attempted to remedy a condition in which one leg grew faster than the other. His experiences with the medical establishment and its culture became important to his work as a poet and a scholar. His groundbreaking essay “The Enjambed Body: A Step Toward a Crippled Poetics” appeared in the Georgia Review.
Ferris’s first book of poems, The Hospital Poems (2004), won the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award. Ferris’s other books include the chapbook Facts of Life (2005). He holds a doctorate in performance studies and has performed his own work widely.
