In order to view this poem with the line breaks the author intended, we suggest reading it on a computer screen or in landscape orientation on your phone or tablet.

Plantar Fascia

I am a tricky muscle.
I can be pounded into cement
for 50 years, then scream up into the heel
like a banshee’s worth of pain.

Don’t bother with the concept of cushion,
and there’s no shroud of a shoe to fix me.
No wrap will quiet me.
No tape will calm or cool me.

Raw red string.
I am the foot’s brutalized anchor,
damned by 206 bones I bear
on the belly of this foot.

Walk on only the ball of the foot
like a creeping wolf
and I may be kinder.
Show me some respect.

I am the tight 88th key of the piano.
I’ll snap if you run.
I’ll be the last into the morgue drawer
and twinge when the tag rings the toe.

—
Marc Darnell is an online tutor and custodian in Papillon, Nebraska. His latest books are Forecast: Increasing Visibility (Kelsay Book, 2024) and The Mining Muse (Impspired Books, 2024). He has published in Skidrow, Penthouse, The Lyric, Ragazine, Blue Unicorn, and elsewhere.

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