Breath & Shadow

POETRY

PETRA KUPPERS

Concrete

My hip hurts. What is it to you?
There is no street that
travels through though you
remember your aunt, or Skipper, the dog.

The street hurts. One step on the grass, skip over
the concrete bit
      relief
in the green middle.

The car hurts. Hurtle like a
dog over the street, break for
you. One step, and we would
have gone too far.

Hip hurt. It drives all night. Remember
the grass. You skip. We stop.
It's concrete.

Petra Kuppers is a disability culture activist, a community artist and an Associate Professor of English at the University of Michigan. A poem of hers is part of a collaborative videowork: check it out on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCU1MHyRFC4