"sclerosis" poems
Dad’s blood vessels
wrap around my ankles.
His numbing sclerosis infects my toes.
Mom and Dad sing I alone love you
in an octave with the front-man
on stage.
They cry together,
subdued through flickered smiles,
and I understand what it is
to be devoted in
the way a fire fights to
cling with candlewick.
I can feel it coming back again,
he whispers near her ear lobe.
The arches of his feet tingle
as mom’s veins tangle with dad’s,
his spine reignited by the warmth
of their flame.
Dec 1, 2015
Dec 1, 2015 at 4:05 PM UTC
I was hangin with my friends who reside at Heritage Place today.
Again they baffled me with wisdom in what they say
Alzheimer's
Multiple Sclerosis
Aids
Just plain ferocious
Yet, when it comes time to pray
They all know just how and what to say
When I'm feeling lost and all alone
They grab my heart and lead me home
They point it out so loud and clear
All the material value we get lost with in this world is not so dear
The time we have in this world is just a snap
Then were gone
So LEARN the LESSONS and move along
Love one another, you see, they tell me,
Will carry you on into Eternity.
Jul 1, 2014
Jul 1, 2014 at 4:54 PM UTC
There’s a line in a movie which goes something like “pain is good, it lets you know you are still alive”. The obvious question that I can hear you asking is “So when the pain goes away you know you’re dead?” This inevitably leads to a conversation about life after death.
Now that topic can be dangerous if you don’t walk away from the conversation quickly enough, at one of “those” parties, you know the ones; the one you would not have gone to if you knew that the person who invited you believed in the power of healing crystals. So as the bottles of wine get emptier, the part time philosophers get louder and more opinionated about everything from the existence of an afterlife to what was the “real” message behind the final episode of M.A.S.H. And yes, I have been unfortunate enough to actually hear some overfilled part time philosopher postulate a well thought out, theory on the subject at an Italian restaurant in Brisbane and unfortunately was only up to desert so could not escape without missing out on coffee and Muscat and cigars. It was a tough call though. Ah smoking in a restaurant, those were the days, now where was I?
So given the opportunity to choose an activity which you know involves pain, i.e.: Rugby League, running a Marathon, Childbirth or listening to drunk part time philosophers at parties, why would you knowingly throw yourself into any of these extreme sports? Well maybe because the rewards of the end result are worth the pain involved during the activity. So that cool night in that Italian restaurant I sat through Scott’s theory, not knowing at the time if the pain of the story was going to be offset by the quality of the temptations to follow desert. And so that leads me to the reason for writing this. A friend of mine recently wrote. “Apparently any given situation can look good if viewed from the right angle. Sometimes I get cramps!”
Well my friend the Muscat was good that night, the coffee rich and earthy and the cigars cheap but free. Scotts actual theory is long gone from my head but the memory of that Muscat coffee and cigars lingers for twenty years.
I am lead to believe that cramps may be a symptom or complication of pregnancy, kidney disease, thyroid disease, hypokalemia, hypomagnesaemia or hypocalcaemia (as conditions), restless-leg syndrome, varicose veins,[2] and multiple sclerosis.*
So, given that if in fact it turned out that you had one of these afflictions and the cramps lead you to discovering this fact, I would say the cramps; like my terrible dinner experience, viewed from the right angle looks good! Now off to the doctor with you, I’m off to the bottleshop.
*From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Feb 15, 2015
Feb 15, 2015 at 12:11 AM UTC
And my nerves
Are like useless hands
At the edge of an
Argument.
My foot had a fight
With a brown brogue
And lost,
And it pays for its defeat
With nakedness.
I carry a jaundiced bag
On my hip,
Like an oversized yellow blister,
And I empty it
With a tremored hand
Against the cistern.
Half of my face
Went numb and
I dumbly
Stared into the bathroom mirror,
Astounded that I
Could still smile.
My most meaningful relationship
Is with laxatives!
I romanticise my gut,
Where the flora lives,
Because you have to
Love your body,
Somehow -
Don’t you?
Sep 2, 2013
Sep 2, 2013 at 9:21 AM UTC
I’m not going crazy.
I’m not being lazy.
Please don’t be a grouch
If I want to lie on the couch
And do nothing much today.
Believe me when I say
It’s not what you think
It’s not from drugs or drink.
It’s not a neurosis
It’s Multiple Sclerosis.
I may seem to stagger
I can no longer swagger.
So, understand this please
I can’t command my knees.
I’m fighting back day and night
And I won’t give up the fight.
What looks like one thing
Can be a much worse thing.
It’s not a neurosis
It’s Multiple Sclerosis.
Life is so full of challenges.
The list of what the damage is
Sometimes seems to outweigh
The cost of living life today.
But, I will not ever surrender.
I must be my best defender
As nobody pays my body bill.
I fight despair and always will.
It’s not a neurosis
It’s Multiple Sclerosis.
Oct 24, 2015
Oct 24, 2015 at 7:41 PM UTC
Yup... Trial And Error...
Is A Great CORRECTOR... !!!
I've Had My Trials...
... Within This Life..
But Have Found They've Helped...
When My Temperature's SWELLED... !!!!!
Somehow They've Dealt...
Some Cards That Felt...
As If NO BLUFF...
Could of Been Enough...
To Rise ABOVE ...
When Things Got TOUGH... !!!
From Working With Jerks...
Who I Wanted To Hurt...
To Dealing With My Mum...
When Sclerosis STUNNED...
... MULTIPLE Functions....
of Her Nervous System... !!!!!
Ya See Trials Have Been...
A Thing That Seemed...
INSURMOUNTABLE...
...... BELIEVE...... !!!!!
But Have Also Built...
A Strength That My Mother...
... Gave To Me... !!!
When She Walked...
And Fought For Me... !!!
Even With.....
Her Husband Ya' SEE... !!!
There Were Some ERRORS...
That Lead To... TERROR...
That HURT Her Heart And Soul DEEPLY... !!!
But Also Proved How STRONG She'd Been... !!!
She'll Always Be...
My TRUE Black Queen... !!!
Because of Her STRENGTH...
When She Came To RESENT...
The Man She'd SPENT...........
Her Love.... Upon...
A Strength SO STRONG...
That Our Love Then SHONE... !!!
But Now She's Gone...
Her Spirit Prolongs...
And Helps Me Through...
My Life's ISSUES... !!!
Because of ERRORS...
That I Now Make...
But Now Whenever...
I'm Feeling PRESSURED...
I Remember How...
We Worked TOGETHER... !!!
As Her Life Was Slowly Drowned... !!!
And Know That She'll NEVER Let Me Down... !!!
If ERRORS I Make...
Make Her Feel ASHAMED... !!!
Because of The LOVE...
We STILL Share TODAY... !!!
So Many Trials Are Part of Life...
I've Found Denial...
DOESN'T Help You Slide by...
Those DIFFICULT Times... !!!
Because Trials I've Faced...
Have Made My Game......
Flow... TIGHT And STRAIGHT... !!!
From Girls In My World...
To Places I've Worked...
I've REFUSED To Be ******
Or Let Chickens... DISTURB...
The Vibe That I...
Have Lived To FIND...
DISMISSES Trials.....................
And...... HARDER Times........... !!!
From EVER Becoming...
A Part of Something...
I'm... PARTY TO... !!!
See Trials Have PROVED...
That Who You CHOOSE...
To Be Down With Your Moves...
Is Key To KEEPING Your Vibe COOL... !!!
Instead of Making Moves With Crews...
Whose Interests Do NOT INCLUDE YOU... !!!
THINK It Through... !!!
Trials You've Been Through...
And ERRORS... PROVE...
That We Must Take Note...
of... Our Life's Quotes...
Because Our DUD Notes...
Are Things That... SHOW...
A BETTER WAY For Us To Go... !!!
Because As I Said...
At The Beginning of...
This INSPIRED Poem.... !!!!!
One of Life's GREATEST Correctors...
When You Think About It... IS...
...... Trial And Error......
Aug 31, 2021
Aug 31, 2021 at 1:11 AM UTC
Multiple Sclerosis is the name that the doctors told me.
I was seventeen years old.
"Unfortunately you have Multiple Sclerosis"
As if it didn't need explaining. As if I was just supposed to know what it meant.
"It's not really life threatening"
But I will have it for the rest of my life?
"We should start medication immediately. Injections are three times a week and oral medication is twice a day everyday"
For the rest of my life?
"The sooner we start the better. We don't want your condition to worsen"
My condition? Can you hear me? What's happening? What's going on?
I felt invisible. Burdened by a disease that cannot be seen.
Because my body sees itself as the enemy.
I am the enemy.
They tell you that you are you are in this world alone and that all you should lean on is yourself tell me what happens when it is yourself fighting the self. When my battle is coming from within.
When it is my body that is failing me.
And I am faced with doctors who call my sclerosis a condition, who tell me it's not serious, who rush me out the door to welcome their next patient and they tell me to be patient when I am asking questions as if I am not patiently waiting for my body to implode against itself because my self is fighting a war everyday and I am tired.
Mommy, you told me I was made from stardust, you told me that inside of me their are little soldiers who ensure that my body is working
but mommy you forgot to tell me that they are fighting me
You forgot to tell me that when I stand up for too long pins and needles will claim my body and force me to sit
You forgot to tell me that sometimes I will wake up and I will feel normal, life will give me a taste of what it feels like to be free.
And mommy I forgot to tell you that today I didn't even feel like getting out of bed.
I forgot to tell you that it wasn't my shoe that slipped on the stairs that made me fall, it was my legs going numb
Jun 20, 2016
Jun 20, 2016 at 4:04 PM UTC
She starred in a Star Trek episode as the girlfriend of Khan.
She was talented but it's sad because now she is gone.
She had Multiple Sclerosis and by 1985, she was bound to a wheelchair.
When she died in December of 2003, it proved that life can be very unfair.
She guest starred in such shows as Hawaii Five-O, Bonanza and Daniel Boone.
When she died at the age of sixty-eight, she died too soon.
Because of her illness, she was unable to reprise her role in Star Trek II.
She was a beautiful and **** actress and her name was Madlyn Rhue.
Sep 29, 2018
Sep 29, 2018 at 11:02 PM UTC
The joint in your hand quaked
Under the pressure of your diagnosis,
Its flame slipping into the air,
While your last puff trickled into left lung.
At first you smoked for depression.
Now it was a cry to God,
A beg for mercy from lifeless feet,
A trip down a flight or two of stairs,
A fall in the shower.
I didn't know how you would walk again without your toes
Knees
Hips.
But I learned your condition is a silent killer -
it started with the smallest flakes of skin,
As Satan lit an accurate match to singe your nerves.
You told me you had MS
And I didn't know why your breaths became frantic,
Or your tears screaming.
"Mean spirited",
"Mouthy sister",
Was what I told my friends.
God was playing jump rope with his spinal cord.
Multiple sclerosis didn't roll off my tongue so quickly,
first attempts were stutters at best -
I had to grow up first.
And while I was lying about your health
You were in agony over your grandmother,
Dead for five years on a stained hospital sheet.
In the end she begged for death,
And we have years to go.
Jan 24, 2016
Jan 24, 2016 at 11:11 PM UTC
when i applied for edinburgh
i was thinking:
i have to get away from these people!
i could have applied
for Oxbridge without thinking,
i applied for Bristol - fair enough,
if some dean asked me to recite
Wordsworth i'd have recited
a recipe saying 'rustic ambiance, you
see, better a recipe off the top
of my head than a date in a chinese restaurant
citing woo 'rds' worth',
like today with leftover Moussaka -
is aubergine the national veg of greece?
anyway, the salad:
spring assortment of cow dung in reverse,
cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, basil,
spring onions, a drizzle of ****** olive oil
infused with chillies,
balsamic vinegar, and half a teaspoon of honey,
salt and paper to taste... wordsworth can ****
his magpie and lark's worth of recitation,
i rather recite a recipe, in line with his
rustic residence -
like me tonight, in no man's land between
shy-urban (suburbia) and the wild parts of
the land, three beers perched on a fence
looking into the dark void of a scaled down
forest - you don't get any crows in urban areas...
indeed Edinburgh was the prime gothic
resurrection, Frankenstein's monster could
have been my neighbour -
whereas some in the grizzly north
attack the sky with colours like the houses
in St. Petersburg (pink, azure,
chickpea), other's embrace the grey
with very mundane coloured architecture,
thus when a chance sunshine comes through
people tend to look up and watch with glee -
Edinburgh brown - stonemasons' slip
of the tongue.
a murky yellow moon, a sclerosis of the moon,
the shining part in reverse
where the night the x-rayed sclera
and the moon the pupil fully illuminated with
gossiping sun in want of a listen;
a murky sclerosis yellow moon - fine agreement
with the thinning clouds that
could never be used for Mickiewicz's castles
in perfect blue and perfect cotton cauliflower contrast
of the zenith by the perpetuated day in mirror-standstill.
Apr 24, 2016
Apr 24, 2016 at 6:49 PM UTC
Awake. feeling chest pain. Is it my valve? It's nearly a quarter century old. How long do these things last? Titanium, strong, will outlive me, but what about the flesh it's anchored to? Pain is an indicator. What's wrong?
I tick like a clock as it opens and closes, hearing each time it skips a beat. Doctors said it looked real good, but eight months ago, not now.
I have two diseases with the same initials. Shouldn't there be a rule against that? Multiple Sclerosis and Marfan Syndrome. What an awkward pair.
Overlapping symptoms complicating treatment. You think they'd give me a two for one discount?
Jun 16, 2019
Jun 16, 2019 at 3:58 AM UTC
the ****** grieves ******
for the feeling of total abandonment
before discovering how not
to abandon herself
the alcoholic grieves Burbon
for the bitter sweet
for how it made him feel
before the hangover
the gout, sclerosis
the love ****** grieves the innocence
the dream, fairy tales, the endorphins
before enough was never enough
the *** addict grieves for another
and another
before the clap, syphilis, despair
before too little became too much
the gambler grieves the green
the shiny stuff at the slot machine
before the house was gone
woman gone, reason gone
smug gone
the crone grieves for youthful ignorance
awe, suspense, naivety, anticipation
before the burn, betrayal, fact
wisdom
the dying grieve for life
energy, breath, the past
before the unknown, surrender
the letting go
the letting go
that's how it goes
Nov 14, 2017
Nov 14, 2017 at 10:55 AM UTC
Within Pantheon Of Classical Gods
stricken with affliction,
sans amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(also known as ALS,
or Lou Gehrig's disease)
in the prime of his youth wrought
underestimation, vitiated termination,
targeted sequestration,
solidified rigidification,
rendered quandary,
per paralyzation obliterated,
nixed navigation,
morphed motivation,
marked limitation
kickstarted infatuation,
jinxed immobilization,
induced intellectual hyperfunction,
garnered fundamental fascination,
fanned fabled exploration,
devastation demonstrated
delectable declaration,
cosmological constant comet
clinched, chained certain capitulation,
brainstormed benefaction,
benediction attribution assured.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
his longevity (marked by bing permanently
linkedin, hitched, drafted
to a custom made wheelchair,
his brilliant unsullied scientific genius)
endured seventy six orbitz veer
ring round the nearest star,
though seemingly motionless, he freed their
ret tickle physiochemical insight
encompassing, revolutionizing,
and jaw-dropping, revelations
with mortals he did share
transcendent seeded plentifully
mental limitless groundswell
fed his fecund rare
if eyed cogitated, formulated, insulated
(infinitesimal nook and cranny) force queer
lee disproportionate overly endowed capacity
bracketed with mar ching madness peer
ring with laser, razor, and taser sharp mind
(or a minuscule approximate near
facsimile thereof) scrutinizing, positing,
and discerning astronomical phenomena mere
via concentrating gifted limned, and rapacious,
though processes affixed
with a visage mordantly like King Lear.
Mar 14, 2018
Mar 14, 2018 at 11:55 PM UTC
All your siblings died in the war
Just you and your baby sister left.
You crossed oceans
To feed your family
Surviving mother and a little girl
Who would later be diagnosed
With multiple sclerosis
What kind of father you must've been
Women always let you down
Wouldn't walk your own daughter
Down the isle
It wasn't proper, pregnant and all
That boy is no good anyway.
That boy is my father
And for all intents and purposes
You were right
"She never told me what he did to her"
Yeah I know, I wouldn't have
Told my father either.
Still haven't told my father
And I don't think I'll bother anyway.
But no matter how torn
My relationship is to my father
And how many times he let us down
In all aspects,
I still hear your voice,
I still remember your scent
I still know your laugh
Grandfather said
Don't fight with your sisters
I'm old, I won't be here
To look after you for long.
My heart's giving up
All you have is each other,
Take care of one another.
You said that after all the money
Is spend and gone
Don't count on an inheritance
Your father's companies are sold or bank rubbed.
There's nothing left for you.
You may never be rich
But you'll always be intelligent.
We sat together you and me
You smelled like the pipe
And I wore my pink summer dress
You asked me questions
Taught me wisdoms
You made a philosopher out of me.
Let that be my inheritance from you.
Sep 23, 2016
Sep 23, 2016 at 11:47 AM UTC
unwelcome resident
methodical thief
stealing health
leaving victims
silently suffering
I
N
V
I
S
I
B
L
E
A
F
F
L
I
C
T
I
O
N
struggling to shoulder
optimism's burden
while future taps
an impatient foot
Jul 9, 2019
Jul 9, 2019 at 9:54 PM UTC
I fail,
like everyone else
before me or after me,
I can't hold the fort,
I can't ride the wave,
I can't bite the cliff,
but I should be proud
that I have never been
in the contention
to be excluded
from being chosen
by the mother,
from being taken away
by the father.
It will never be
the question of how far
we made it,
but it will always be
the question of how
we will deliver it.
Jan 8, 2018
Jan 8, 2018 at 8:58 PM UTC