A long period of hospitalization and convalescence
following a spinal operation in October, 1954,
gave me my first opportunity to do the reading
and research necessary for this project.
John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage
Worn down, scolded by a nagging back,
I ask what the Carolina Rocker can do for me.
Embraced in steam-bent oak and woven rattan,
I find the angle of incline and the seesaw
swing and sway eases my ache.
It’s a brisk sit, like walking while seated.
At my mom’s skirt hem to the thump and hiss
of her ironing, Kennedy sparred with Nixon
in jittery black-and-white. A few years later,
a shot in Dallas sent me home from school.
I saw Oswald murdered live on television
and John-John salute a flag covered casket.
I could rock endlessly in a chair that sweetened
the president’s suffering. Rhythmic
motion stirs both memory and legs, pain
fires time’s essence, saturates the moment
with necessity, just as distance provokes
our reach beyond profiles to full-frontal courage.
