Magaly from Poets and Storytellers United invites us to write about “muscle memory”.
I don't have much of that because of dyspraxia So I spread some awareness.
Dyspraxia is an
inability to plan coordinated movements. The praxis of the brain tells the
muscles which ones to tense and which to relax to perform a task. Now these messages are
not coming through properly. When my body doesn’t know what to do, there is not much feedback for the muscle memory in the brain.
When I did a Tai Chi class a while ago, I heavily relied on watching the others
and copying them. Now as I don’t always know what my body is doing and my short-term memory is compromised as well, this is not fool
proof.
So, on a bad dyspraxic day, it is sometimes better to throw in the towel or just
do my own little dance. lol
Things get better when you are older, and you also learn to accommodate for it.
Dyspraxia
Walking and talking together
tugs me into a slanted line
Thoughts in tatters on stained paper
Fingers getting lost on the keyboard
Being floppy and slow as a sloth
Scarce muscle memory
Sitting up straight a drudgery
My body a lost battleship
bumping into breaking waves
till tired wood drifts drunkenly
Dyspraxia hangs around me
like an invisible ghost
I can’t shake if off
But even if frustration
leaks from all my pores
It made me resourceful
It made me break through walls
Gave me the willpower of a warrior
It made me return to the world
to drink in the light
which blurs the edges
of flowers in twilight
to inhale the smell
of the warming earth
to sense the magical melodies
which makes you dance
even if you were not supposed to
