Spring Into Verse Day 16 -POETRY for Left Handers

Today's poem is quite a personal piece. It's origins spring from my earliest school experience and involves my left hand. Being left handed didn't seem to matter until I started school and then my teacher felt it was imperative that I change. She informed me my writing would never be neat. I have heard stories of fellow left handed writers being hit with rulers or having their left hand forcibly restrained to restrict them from doing what was natural for them. Thankfully educators have a more enlightened view of we left handed writers. 



Leave My Left Hand Alone, Right !

When I started school
A prep still unbranded
They looked at me strangely
And observed
He's left handed !
Well I was just five
And my left hand felt right
I didn't consider its use was a blight
You'll have to change hands
Learn to write like the rest
The news didn't please me
I found it a pest
They handed me crayons
Scissors and chalk
All in my right hand
But this didn't work
I scribbled and chopped
I felt quite bereft
I desperately needed the use of my left
I didn't conform
I continued to fight
The use of my left
Was a personal right
So they left me to write
With the hand of my choosing
And to this very day

It's the left I'm still using.

Alan j Wright

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