'Flash' writing anthology about chronic pain - submissions welcome!
Hello pain let’s dance! Hello pain let’s dance together and cry a melody Just you and me forever which dance is it to be? A boogie or a waltz a tango or some jiving? Whatever the rhythm It’s time to do some living The violinist’s bow hews across its strings The drummer’s sticks do beat […]
I feel the music This orchestra of mine I jest your intimacy Embracing every shard With love and warmth But should you say goodbye And leave me before I die I shall stand and run and dance To an air of triumph! But should you chance to be With me ‘til the end No matter […]
i often say i wouldnt wish this disease on my worst enemy. i wouldnt. no one deserves this. but i am so glad you understand, that i am not Alone… i wouldnt wish this on my worst enemy, so Why am I glad my best friend has it? i am the worlds biggest hypocrite… […]
hey Leah ive been worried about you. theres this site i want you to see, ive been putting poems on there about chronic pain. you dont have to do this alone. by socks England
morphine tastes nasty, ive called it ‘the devil’s cough syrup’ before. it’s sickly sweet and cloying, but you know what’s Weird? when you first take that spoonful into your mouth, it’s not that bad. not great, it’s still medicine, but it’s tolerable. only when you attempt to swallow it does it make its true terribleness […]
It’s 2am and my body is on fire. Every cell is boiling. Sweat creeps from my pores. It only takes a moment to soak through my favourite t-shirt, then through the sheets and mattress covered in yellow imprints. I can’t get any fucking sleep. This happens to me every night, up to ten times. Then […]
This is shocking. I am not an object and I am not broken but the pain tells me differently. This is chronic. Why am I not adjusted yet? It comes and goes, it’s all my consciousness or all I want is to lie down. And when […]
hospital gown a flap in the back lights flickering tra la la obsessive screaming sounds of machines dissolving matter situated between two beds rupture of bodies declared missing delivered in close up by Jane Joritz-Nakagawa Japan Jane Joritz-Nakagawa’s most recent book is Poems: New and Selected (Isobar, 2018) on sale at Amazon
There is no God. I know it. I feel it in this agony. This violence. As my brain tricks my body into ripping itself apart. There isn’t. There can’t be. Please God. There can’t be. by Holly Hirst Twitter @RomGothHolly
The chaos of pain in every moment Inside me Playing its jarring jazz Impromptu – No set list Whilst I exist amongst you Cloaked I normalcy by Sara Elgerot Sweden