The Healing of a Wound – a poem by Emily Peña Murphey

The Healing of a Wound

There comes a time in the healing of a wound,
When it must be exposed to air,
Unswathed of gauze wrapping,
No longer babied and worried over;
Allowed into the light.

The strategy of bandaging worked for awhile
But is no longer best.
Surely such change means an openness
To recurrence of the original pain;
Braced for,
Yet surely returning with a lesser intensity.

An intricate ballet of cells and tissues
Will be directed by a divine hand,
Protecting the damaged places
Until a fresh boundary is set.
Young skin will form
Over a site once inflamed, oozing and raw,
Where for a time contact with the world was impossible.

Eventually the scar will become part of a new self
Moving forward and timorously welcoming growth.
In time we may even invite others to touch such a place,
As Our Lord once beckoned His bewildered disciple,
Having survived a brutal death
And boldly proclaiming a second birth.

Emily Peña Murphey is a retired psychotherapist who has published work in several literary journals. She was recently designated a finalist in the short story and essay categories of the Adelaide Literary Contest. She has family roots in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Texas’ Río Grande Valley. She has been coping with chronic illness for over two decades. She lives in Philadelphia.