When he was dying, I swallowed a CoCodamol before bedtime as if it were hot chocolate. I craftily attributed my zen-like calm in the face of helping Dad as he pissed blood into a plastic pot at 3am – I don’t know what’s happening to me, he said, again and again – to my sensible… Continue Reading ‘The Night Shift’, by Libby R.
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A man is ill. Whispered recollections of what he once was are all that sustain him. He has no hope. His aching visions of what should have been kill comfort. What could have been is a lie. He has no hope. He has no future. He has only now. Life took revenge for a life… Continue Reading ‘A Double Etheree on Living with M.E.’, by Linda Cosgriff
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Pain stitched into each joint, he withers and fades. A mutilated life. by Linda Cosgriff Author website United Kingdom
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I went to see occupational therapist today, as I am having troubles with my daily chores. She asked some challenging stuff and burst into tears when I talked about my medical past. Then she told me her most intimate and painful story. I held her hand and we shared a beautiful moment of vulnerability together.… Continue Reading ‘SHARING VULNERABILITY THROUGH OUR STORIES’, by Katarina Juvancic
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After struggling with ear problems all my life and having two surgeries for Cholesteatoma in 2008 and 2015, a recent flare up has caused months of pain that is unexplained and has baffled my consultants. Having this on top of my original ear problems and cluster headaches sometimes the pain can make days difficult. This… Continue Reading ‘A Hidden Truth’, by Amy Hunter
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Wedged between sky and river The birch, plaiting scarred spines, joins Ochre leaves to Cirrus clouds. In the wedge of bed and window Your wounded limbs endure A throbbing rhythm to misting dew Autumn wraps a sultry cage Of alizarin crimson. She entwines the rising bone To breach the slough of heaven Branches thunder and… Continue Reading ‘Encroachment’, by Mary Marie Dixon
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Twenty minutes; one thousand two hundred seconds, nothing really, unless you’re waiting, waiting to be told about something you may not want to hear. I feel different; my body is telling me there is a problem. Seventeen have passed. I’m sitting in a room where time has stood still. I’m surrounded by a sea of… Continue Reading ‘Twenty Minutes’ (Anon.)
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(After Tennyson’s ‘The Dying Swan’) In this wasting plain a Wedge of swans Tangle in water So deep her eyes In the gyring ferment I am impotent Warming blankets only burn The stab I cannot touch her I cannot reach her To this berth I cannot go She writhes White feathers Drop around her bed… Continue Reading ‘Swans and Swallows’, by Mary Marie Dixon
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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 … Continue Reading ‘Hagalaz’, by Ruth V. Chalkley
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Today I was issued with hand splints. Carapaced; oddly reassuring, oddly restricting; Even in their disposition. I am that crab. Their bindings have an onomatopoeia: irascible. by Ruth Victoria Chalkley Additional poems hosted on other websites: Tanzkarte NHS; Carrier Pigeon for Science U.K.
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