My Body is Like Jenga

     Due to no popular demand whatsoever, I have written a companion piece for my classic poem from 2024, My Body is Like Costco. Part of my inspiration was the realization that after my left shoulder replacement, my right lower back was no longer chronically tight. That was not the first time I realized that the "equal and opposite reaction" in Newton's Third Law of Motion is true of my body. That does not mean the same joint on the other side of my body is what reacts, it compensates for the problem area at an angle. Left shoulder affects right hip, kind of like another game, Twister. I have not sought permission from Jenga to use their trade name any more than I did from Costco to use theirs. After all, this is a companion piece, not an equal and opposite reaction.

 

My Body is Like Jenga 

 

My body is like Jenga

for every piece that moves,

it thinks it has to compensate

however it behooves.

 

When my arthritic shoulder, 

the left one, locked up tight,

my hip bones readjusted,

putting traction on the right.  

 

This isn't very helpful

the last thing my system needs,

is one more problem area 

whose function it impedes.  

 

Our body "towers" balance

using any means they can,

and when we're young and healthy

that's a great part of God's plan.

 

But when we're old and toppling 

it doesn't work the same.

I think it's time my body stopped

playing its Jenga game. 

 

3/24/26