Everyone Welcome
I sit at the back of class, behind rows of people in padmasana.
Legs crossed on their mats. I stay in my chair. I’m not everyone.
I haven’t taught anyone in a chair before, says the teacher.
I assume you know what you’re doing.
Through yoga I’m trying to accept who I am, to learn more
about my body, one that does not move in a conventional way.
It has led me to appreciate the breath that flows through
my whole limbs. Sometimes it leads me to classes
where there is a look of judgement, even fear on the face
of someone who only wants to teach a body like theirs.
I become my own teacher.
I ask myself what I need to feel happy, balanced.
The answer is not at the front of the room but in the space
I create by lifting in my chair, forming room beneath my buttocks.
I use my hands to guide my legs. Through that connection
I recognise I am whole. At the end the teacher says,
You can do a lot from your wheelchair.
I have taught myself how to listen to my skin.
Stephen Lightbown is a poet who writes extensively but not exclusively about life as a wheelchair user. Stephen is the author of two poetry collections Only Air and The Last Custodian (both from Burning Eye Books). He lives in Bristol in the UK.