BELL’S PALSY

My quasi-motored physiognomy
Now half-defaced by palsy’s frightful grip
Can only smile or wink one-sidedly
While features on the other side all tip:

A drooping eyelid, a declining lip,
An ear that used to wiggle, now gone still,
A mouth that when I swallow tends to drip,
An eye that wayward tears now overfill.

My brain, at least, continues undeterred,
Its two halves still congruently allied,
One to make a picture, one a word
So sound and sense may happily coincide.

     I’ll face up to this challenge I defy~
     Unless my sense of humor goes awry.

*