Knees In Need

Once upon a childhood, my knees swallowed the luminous sunshine and inhaled the tangy odor of freshly mowed lawn. Ruddy and unwashed, the slim bends in my legs proudly sported the glowing green of grass stains and the brooding brown of wet earth. Occasionally, slashes of red or violet bruises would erupt. A rebellious branch might whip one as I scrambled up the mulberry tree in my front yard. Or a bothered wasp might sting one as I sank into a stretch of daisies. And bulbous rocks frequently ripped them apart. My knees didn’t mind these tastes of pain. My knees talked with nature constantly, and these brushes of blood were simply some of the more solemn conversations.

I rejoiced in my jolly joints and all they could do for me. With their help, I was a princess crawling away from a Cyclops or a sorrowfully short dwarf. They hung upside down from sturdy tree branches in the morning, and crouched behind the rose bush when my Dad called me in for dinner.

My knees enjoyed flocks of friends besides me. Amber snails slimed across them while eying the rest of me with suspicious tentacles. Silver rolly-poleys tickled them with whispy legs before curling into a ball and rolling down my leg.Even my neighbor's chocolate labrador bounded across the yard and kissed them. Blushing pink with the pleasure from all this company, my knees let the rays of sunlight catch their scattered strands of blond and illuminated like gold.

I look at my knees now. They are chalky white and naked. Their days are no longer spent sprawled among my backyard’s tangled mass of grass and flowers. A foot above concrete or carpet, my clean knees sit idly for hours. They no longer feel like a part of my body. They feel like at tool. A service device. They bend to transport me. They fold to exercise me. They connect to support the rest of my body. They do their job efficiently enough. But they still long for the sloppy embrace of the snail and the creamy taste of mud. My brain tells me I have vastly improved in the last ten years. But my knees, silent and mournful, shake in disagreement.