I’m starting to feel my toes again

the feeling has returned 

to my ankles 

my shins 

my knees

snaking its way around 

my waist, my ass

up the middle of my back

tracing my spine 

vertebrate by vertebrate,

and occasionally gets stuck 

like an ascending wooden rollercoaster,

jolting and threatening 

to dump me out of my own cart

but for whatever reason

I keep holding on —

something about 

practicing patience

for when the ride resumes,

my cart crests the first hill

and I am weightless 

once more.