Le Scaphandre et le Papillon

Bauby in bed, one
eye sewn shut like a doll except
no buttons, no hugged scars
A stroke

Mother Mary for my knees
for my hands, for my chest
A lover to breathe for the
tube in my neck

Sunken suit in a dense sea
pulling further down, abyss
Of the mind then the heart
--paralyzed in an automobile

So far from the living,
removed like a lung
The sky is always just
out of reach