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Friday, May 11, 2018

Reverting To Words...



,,,because sometimes, only words will do.  This week is ME awareness week; read more about it here.  There are a lot of events happening across the country, across the world, in fact, including Millions Missing, where shoes are set out, labelled with their owners' stories, to indicate the way in which they are missing from the event, and indeed, to some extent, from their own lives.  I can't go to the Edinburgh event (at the Mound, if you want to go along), so I thought I'd mark it with a poem.


Wasting My Energy : A Poem For ME Awareness

You. Yes, you. You who can dance
Whenever you want.  Stroll
Unconcerned wherever you
Wish, run for a mile, or a
Bus without thinking.  Work, laugh or play
Without consequence.  
You really don’t get it, now do you?
Here sit I, wheels for feet,
Buses a distant memory.  Oh yes,
My legs work, and the rest of me: I can
Stand up, point a toe, take a few
Careful steps, then sit down hard
Gasping for breath.
And that will make me
A fraud in your eyes;  that is,
If you see me at all.  Invisible,
That’s me.  (It’s got something to do
With the chair).

Humour me, just for a moment.
Imagine a world filled with pain,
Every action carefully planned, consequences
Weighed up and measured, that is
If just rising from bed can be managed..
Imagine your life without action,
Interaction, meaning: you’re imagining
Mine.  Nobody asks for ME; it just
Happens one day, irreversible,
Misunderstood.  No testing,
Diagnosis or cure.  No treatment.
No sympathy.  Just judgement,
And the shaking of heads. It’s no
Way to live. It’s all there is.
You still don’t get it, do you?

I really tried.

4 comments:

wendy cook said...

I think that explains it beautifully. I am so proud of those people with ME who can communicate what it is like. Thank you.

artmixter said...

Thank you, wendy, I'm glad you think so.

Heleen Roberts van der Meer said...

Exactly - well said that woman!

artmixter said...

Thank you, Heleen.