"Reprise" by Terri Lynn Cummings

Reprise

Terri Lynn Cummings

"Scoliosis" Watercolor on Paper
By J. Artemus Gordon

Archeology (not music)

gained parents’ approval

for a university degree

My hands touched history--

personalized death

while people died like minutes

I knew they were similar--

an ancient corpse tossed in a grave 

found beneath a parking lot

and grandfather, regal in a suit

buried in a cotton field

They ruled by traditions 

narrow as hatchets, rigid 

as armor, while those shields 

protected and excluded them

The past, honest in its shadow

never shrinks from dishonor

or a jawbone, teeth intact

with nothing to chew 

but the wreck of time 

on bones like my back--

twisted as a sinner 

or a bootlegger 

or a king

Poet’s Notes:  Scoliosis runs on the paternal side of my family. Fortunately, medical science, technology, and a pair of fine surgeons made it possible to repair my back. Meanwhile, I had always felt sorry for King Richard III, labeled deformed, and who did not have the hope of relief. I used to imagine the pain he would have experienced while on horseback--especially since I saw how similar his curvature was to mine. 

I found the title for this poem after it was written. A friend suggested I use a musical term for the word repeat or repetition. I chose “reprise” to indicate medical issues are sometimes inherited or repeated. 

As for the jawbone (mentioned in the next to last stanza), I saw an ancient one at Caesarea, Israel. Part of an archaeological team, I examined it while standing inside a recently excavated Crusader soldier’s grave. I’ll never forget it.