'Flash' writing anthology about chronic pain - submissions welcome!
Eight months of pain, guilt.
Losing my movement slowly,
Affecting my work.Pain in my hip, back,
Encroaching on everything.
Physio: please help.Boss can’t understand,
Pretended it wasn’t bad.
I used to be fit.
Practicing patience,
Trying to be kind to self.
But some days that’s hard.
[This image shows my legs in better times, when they were still able to take me on a 15 kilometre hike through the Rocky Mountains. Summer, 2017.]
Canada
In Lithuanian, runoti means both “to cut (with a knife)” and “to speak”.
Hail: Hagalaz
Pain, loss, suffering, hardship, sickness, crisis.
Spirit-breaker
Faith-Taker
Misery-Maker
Joy-Stealer
Dream-Breaker
Shadow-Hound.
Thought-Waker
Friend-Fooler
Life-Dealer
Mood-Carver
Time-Stealer
Life-Hider.
Sometimes, some time,
Signal-Saver.
U.K.
i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom i want my mom
The snow and salt on your coat
suggests that you’ve been outside
shoveling, maybe, or
tossing snowballs for the dogs.
But in fact it’s the dogs who have
brought the snow and salt inside,
flinging it onto your coat
when they shake it away.
Your coat hangs on the back of a chair
and you haven’t been out all day.
You’ve been mostly in bed because of the
new and unfamiliar but not
unexpected pain in your hip,
Another joint your illness
is colonizing in your body.
You can only watch the dogs
play in the snow,
young pups again,
their own bodies slowing even faster than yours.
Black dogs,
white snow,
white snow,
red counterpane,
the outside in
where you can
be in it.
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