BY MITCHELL TOEWS
Copyright is held by the author.
The morning I was born
the Doctor bobbled the ball
sending me ass over toes
spinning like a tiny Orion
without a belt
down to the tile floor of the delivery room
But I saved that fumbler’s job
me DANGLING there
like a wet, eight-pound ball
of gore and grit and pissed off
fever-red baby
A one-string guitar
I pendulum back and forth
describing an arc of such stunning imperfection
Nurse Rempel yells “Holy shit!” in the pure wonder of
how my head did not crack open
like an over-easy breakfast special
And I say holy shit right back at her
and take a swinging sunny-side-up kick
and catch that butterfingered
no-good receiver right in his . . .
“Sack of potatoes, I am not!” I scream with defiance
and the Nurse laughs into her mask
and reels me in
hand-over-hand
like pulling a full pail up out of a deep well in the desert
Yes, I had a double hernia —
what do you expect after being dropped
at four in the morning
like a slippery lump of dough;
Einback in Steinbach?
“He missed the pass! He missed the pass!”
screams Mom to the score keeper on high
she always did like sports you see
and after a few whiles
seeking calmness in the bedlam
so did I
Mom made up her mind —
decided then and there
flat on her back
that if I refused to die
well — what the hell?
maybe I was worth keeping around
And so it went with me,
the karmic orb on a stretchy string:
bat me and I’ll come backatcha
twice as hard, and buster
if you drop me
I’m just gonna bounce like she taught me
***
Mitchell Toews is a Canadian author of literary fiction exploring themes of
fairness, life in Canada, and intergenerational dynamics. His periodical credits total 150+, to publications such as Sky Island Journal, and
Corpus Callosum Journal (U.S.); Pulp Literature and CommuterLit (CA); and Fiction on the Web, Literally Stories, and Fictive Dream (U.K.). He has also
collected nominations for the Journey Prize and the Pushcart Prize. Mitch is the author of the themed collection of short stories, Pinching Zwieback (At Bay Press, 2023). A second collection (December 2026, Pulp Literature Press, Vancouver, B.C.) and Mitch’s debut novel (May 2027, At Bay Press Winnipeg, MB) are forthcoming.