paralyzed

I remember,
when his hands held baseball bats,
when there were blisters from weight training,
and when his fingers squeezed mine.

Now,
those fingers are trapped, curled in.
Chipped, calloused pieces of skin
have formed rough elephant scales on the outer palm
where he grinds against the rubber of his wheelchair.

I wonder why
he just doesn’t wear gloves
and his tired eyes tell me
I won’t ever be able to understand this notion of pride.