Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Symptoms Vary (Day 105)

To exert yourself
AKA: to talk   
on the phone 
or in person or any 
other way you can   
to drive   to buy food   
to balance your account
to take a hot shower is 

to be today or tomorrow
exhausted, hurting 
in more ways than
there are colors
of butterflies:

yellow and black 
striped pain, jagged 
like broken glass
or aching like 
a new bruise when
you press it   hard     
head throbbing   flashing
crimson fever   sore throat

and deep blue bone
crushing  utterly depleting 
exhaustion   like your violet 
veins have been emptied
of oxygenated blood

unaccountably light 
and sound suddenly
become your enemies
this time   have you been
felled for days 
or weeks or months or 
years   indoors
in bed   outside 
of a world that keeps 
revolving 
around you   

yet somehow seems never 
to remember who 
you used to be   and that you
though diminished 
and broken  
and broke beyond 
what you ever imagined
are still here    aren't
you


(c) 2017, by Hannah Six

There is no cure—and very little research funding—for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). The recently-proposed budget would remove what little exists, leaving millions of patients, and heroic researchers, reliant on non-governmental funds only. To learn more, and to donate to help find a cure, please visit:


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