Song to a Crippled Child

So tell me, Julie, does it hurt

Your heart to watch the others run?

Or does the ache perhaps revert

To limbs you only wear for fun,

Those worthless toys, their tension sprung

So young?

The way you toss your head and peer

Cock-like to follow their swift play,

Why, one might think you held it dear

To sit and supervise all day,

As though without a choice you chose

This pose.

I guess there's one thing you should know:

Not one of them will run for long.

Too soon, too soon will stiffness grow,

For speed stays only in my song,

My song in motionless review

Like you.