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Who I Once Was

by Terrance Longtin

I frolic and play every day of the week, Not a care in the world, No restraints, without boundaries, we were simply uncaged. Wildly running and laughing, In the sun, rain or snow. Suddenly having strange pangs in my legs, The pangs turn to anguish, then to an affliction, For years I stayed silent, well into my teens. Unavoidable, compulsory, describes what comes next. Carved up in the hospital, God help me! I'm hobbled. For the first time in life, I am sidelined and powerless, It's unfamiliar and grim. Fast-forward half a century, I'm feeling beat-up and worn, This affliction, adversity, is still with me now, I am just barely mobile, a shut-in most days. Oh how I long to live once more in the world, I still recollect who I once used to be, Full of hope and great promise. Will I frolic again? Let's just wait and see.
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Terrance Longtin

I'm 62 years old, I am married, I am an artist, I do abstract paintings and sell them locally and on Etsy in Terrance Gallery. I have had 23 major surgeries on my legs, recently Nov 9, Jan 11 and the next one in April. So I have a full leg cast from Nov 9 thru June 28 so I wrote a children's book which has been published and released to the public March 13, 2021. Also I kind of got interested in writing free verse poetry and I have written five so far. I love my cats and my 14 yr old grandson. I'm married to the absolute best wife ever! One of my tattoos is on my forearm, it's from a free verse poem by Walt Whitman called "Song of the Open Road" it's 15 pages long but well worth reading. My tattoo says "all seems beautiful to me" and there's a Chinese symbol for beauty at the end. Walt Whitman is known as the father of free verse poetry. I actually wrote a free verse poem about myself, which I really like.

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