Going for a Walk

Gustavo Fring — Pexels

My friend and I are going for a walk
Even though she walks on rubber soles
And I roll on treaded wheels

I read emotional debates on Twitter
Wait while words teeter on tongues
as language holds its breath

Reaffirms it’s still alive when someone
dares to use a word reserved
for a movement I perform differently

Me — I open the dictionary
Write Merriam Webster
to update their definitions—

because even though I use a wheelchair

I still walk with my friends

Mary Keating 9/2022