'Healing' Video

A man is praying.

And

Really

What's so wrong

With that?

Well, nothing.

Unless you look

Closer.

Unless you see

That the woman

Being prayed for

Is

Being prayed for

In the women's section

Of a department store.

Unless you see

How her hand covers her 

Neck, and does not move.

Guarding the 

Intense

Vulnerability

I know she feels.

Unless you notice

How the man

Never calls her 

By any name - 

Almost like

She isn't human.

She protests:

"I can't walk.  

This is just 

How I am."

And he screams at her:

"GET UP."

I am thrown back

Through time.

The man's hands

Change.

They take my crutches

And set them down

Away from me.

He paces with me.

He tries

To let

Go 

Of 

Me.

Time drags.

It feels like twenty minutes

(Twenty minutes too damn long.)

He never asked my name.

He just blamed

What didn't happen next

On me.

That's why I don't

Need to see

Videos of a man

Screaming at a woman.

Heedless of her discomfort

Of her very humanity

Of her dignity.

Because in the end

It's always about those

Who push themselves

On those of us

Who their acts

Harm 

Far more than

A disability

Ever 

Could.