{"id":3940,"date":"2019-05-12T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2019-05-12T09:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/translatingpain\/?p=3940"},"modified":"2019-05-12T09:00:55","modified_gmt":"2019-05-12T09:00:55","slug":"twenty-four-seven-by-hedgehog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/twenty-four-seven-by-hedgehog\/","title":{"rendered":"‘TWENTY FOUR SEVEN’, by Hedgehog"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am your pain.<\/span>
\nLike Puck; quicksilver, impish, mischief-making.<\/span>
\nYou\u2019re easily fooled, you make my nonsense real, you feel what is not true.<\/span>
\nI stab and prickle, or transform into<\/span>
\nA metal straitjacket, squeezing your foot, your leg.<\/span>
\nImprisoned.<\/span>
\nAround each toe, elastic bands pulled tight.<\/span>
\nYou call me neuropathy; I say there\u2019s no such thing,<\/span>
\nYour foot, your leg, your left side, are my playthings.<\/span>
\nWhen you sit quiet or sleep, I perch on your bed,<\/span>
\nWaiting for you to move, when I will strike<\/span>
\nHalf-numb, like an injection in the gum where you can\u2019t smile or chew,<\/span>
\nHalf feather-sensitive, you jump awake<\/span>
\nWhen the duvet\u2019s pulled so gently by a sleeping partner; he is unaware<\/span>
\nThat you lie, struggling to relax, to breathe it out, make it go away…<\/span>
\nBut I don\u2019t leave. I will never leave.<\/span>
\nI control. I rule you. I am king.<\/span><\/p>\n

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