every breath was a wheeze
sometimes it sounded more like a whistle
who was making this sound?
I stilled myself the best I could
my nose was whistling
my mouth was wheezing
two perks of being an asthmatic
add the perk of having to struggle to breathe
and you are part of this party
Categories:
asthmatic, sick,
Form: Free verse
They do not know I name them—
the trees blackened by exhaust,
asthmatic, stoic gods lining
pedestrian bridges that never forget.
Each leaf is a reluctant confessor.
Each trunk remembers
how I once pressed my palm and thought:
You too are surviving this.
I walk past ads that scream at no one.
Past lovers who will never call again.
Even the sky here has bills to pay.
But I stay, because someone has to remember
the dust collecting on invisible altars.
Categories:
asthmatic, loneliness,
Form: Free verse
Daffodils on rolling hills
Tulips in full bloom
A rose emerges every hour
Aroma of peonies in my room
Dad burn it, I Hate Spring
It’s far too aromatic
Earth's rebirth blots out mine
~ Alas, I’m highly asthmatic
Categories:
asthmatic, flower, health, senses, spring,
Form: Rhyme
My friend always says “we need to get together soon”
She is a phone friend.
I remind her that I am not going anywhere unless it is forty degrees.
I am an asthmatic.
Cold air triggers my respiratory infection and pneumonia.
I reiterate this twice during this phone call.
“It’ll be forty degrees tomorrow,” she says.
My pause does not last two seconds.
“I don’t want to,” I reply.
Categories:
asthmatic, friend,
Form: Free verse
There is snow on her coat, her ****, and her eyelashes
She has run up the hill in spurts and weird little dashes
Her breathing is labored, she remembers now she is an asthmatic
Her inhaler is where? Too bad carrying it with her is not automatic
Categories:
asthmatic, sick,
Form: Rhyme
justice sweats under its weight- an asthmatic laboring for its breath
Categories:
asthmatic, allegory, integrity, judgement,
Form: Monoku
Jack and the Beanstalk was exaggerated some
I know ‘cause I heard the real tale from my mum.
She was high when she told me, filled up with rum
I was terrified at her “fee fie foe fum!”
Jack was my uncle, and he kept that bean stalk
But could not climb it when he was too old to walk
He got stuck for a day, had to be rescued by me
Then the beanstalk dissolved, so it no longer “be”.
I pictured my uncle climbing the stalk, way up high.
He was a portly, asthmatic, arthritic kind of guy.
I do not want to say that I think my mom would lie.
But she gets crazy when she is juiced up so high
Categories:
asthmatic, 2nd grade, 3rd grade,
Form: Rhyme
Chickens we consign to coops
Pigs we pack into pens
Horses we corral in a stable
Cows we stick in a shed
Our children play in spacious playpens
at night, like roses, they sleep in a bed
Yet animals have fun, they feed and frolic
~ while asthmatic youngsters develop colic
Categories:
asthmatic, animal, children, fun, sick,
Form: Rhyme
Her inhaler is not exorbitant
But should it count much that she's The Buoyant?
Why the breathless condition keep constant?
Black smoke from her kitchen Great Irritant!
Six in the morning the cursed urge itching
And Madam Irene must see her kitchen.
Helping her out was her nicest offer
But she had continued to 'Yes' defer.
With her husband she shall first confer,
As he has opinions he can proffer!
"Mama, you're damned down: That's the main point,
To now steer life's precious ship effort joint;
Miss Agnes: a cook for you we appoint;
For the job your pastor could her anoint."
Categories:
asthmatic, cry, death, fear, health,
Form: Rhyme
For more than forty years my pistol
And - trust - me - in the dark like a pistol,
Sadly competing with my loved Christ,
Mostly after quaffed Stout cruelly iced!
Years back wore the look of Machine gun,
When it stopped ripe deaths from crazy fun:
The times I’d dared wrestle with Rothmans
Also with Menthols raunchy romance;
Once in my bag wouldn’t feel luckless
As it kept licensing The Reckless
The Asthmatic: An Idol Worshipper
My Dream Business: Inhaler’s Shipper.
Till date smuggles it into a church
Christ’s priests won’t see it, unless they search.
If my mum were alive, she’d slap me;
Would it – I know - reserve like Hot Tea
Categories:
asthmatic, christian, cry, death, health,
Form: Rhyme
Parents could contact Director
Or him skip for The Inspector,
A Child Deviant for Hot Iron,
His strokes like African lion...
Assignment once in a long while;
Things that simply promote his style
But how does he go that much length:
An Asthmatic won’t dare for strength?
With his rebuffs of inhaler
That could increase his wahala?
Long speeches he rates as Teaching,
A settling for Fine-Tuned Preaching;
A voice rather An Awkward Blare,
A close listener to just stare…
He moves body with Strength rare,
More than Normal Human should spare;
A complete rejection of tact
While driving home a point or fact;
As he forswears Moderation:
An odd chap in my profession
Categories:
asthmatic, education, image, strength, wisdom,
Form: Rhyme
He was my former student,
In whom I found not a dent.
On the day he took the leap
I’d seen a knotted crowd weep:
Way back 1998
While Service Allowance did wait...
Passers-by he’d shocked with stereo:
A yelling one for “Cheerio,”
His reason ‘Quite Earth-Shaking:
“One could sleep off, no waking!”
He had me killed Ten times with smiles
And did me indulge no wiles…
Benjamin with no girlfriend,
Which I warned him to just end,
Whereupon he tried him to please
And replied next week with ease...
By me made to understand
He has to farm my own land
And he gave A Quick Alright
“I know tomorrow will be right.”
Owned cheeks I could swear puffy
And occupied a room stuffy
Or had he been asthmatic
And his attack automatic?
Not your fault Bright Light went dim:
You rest in peace Benjamin.
Categories:
asthmatic, absence, appreciation, care, death,
Form: Rhyme
Visibly wore she my footprints
While bore I a Restarted Scholarship,
In 1993 flaunting The Dullest Glints
With streets that rather mirrored hardship …
Okigwe was The Sometimes Chilly
And irritably The Hilly
A thing of sure hatred by Asthmatic Roads Users
And of as sure by Escaping Criminal Losers …
I’ve heard ‘By An Embittered Dweller cursed’
And since A Metaphor for The Started and Paused:
Often a fitfully regular power supply
And a loss of University Town status, no reply!
Towards modernity, a laborious marching,
Never able Galloping Speed hatching;
For guaranteed steady strides searching
Scarcely for The Dependable catching …
Now, harboring A Community of Northerners,
A lot enthused about their fast-selling Suya
And a Not-Hostile Host Southerners
For them striking more bargains than fewer.
Categories:
asthmatic, absence, africa, anxiety, people,
Form: Rhyme
We were in the upper region of the Artic.
It was cold; our breaths were recorded in the atmosphere
I was huffing and puffing as I climbed.
Shh! Our guide said.
I could not help it; I am an asthmatic.
Shh! The others said.
I was annoyed now.
I have asthma, I told them. I cannot help it!
Too bad, the guide said, “For you are annoying the cougar”.
I looked into large dark eyes, and my heart stopped.
I knew I was in trouble.
When encountering a big cat, do not run, my training said.
As if I could run.
I was completely still, trying not to breathe.
I began to hyperventilate, which seemed to draw his gaze.
I averted my eyes, not wanting to challenge him.
“She is gone,” the guide said. “You can breathe again.”
As if I could.
Categories:
asthmatic, cat,
Form: Free verse
Listen to her death certificate’
Who’d fought for life’s duplicate
“Severe Anorexia
Secondary to status asthmaticus”.
Oh! How it had rung worse than Amnesia
And had meant some asthmatic curse.
Several struggle -out “God, Receive my soul’’
As death bell was about to toll
I, to the hilt, a struck-dumb spectator
For the longest seconds, tongue-tied commentator
Soon, rapidly pondering not why she should expire
But why villainous terminator should soon acquire…
At conspiratorial 9:25 pm
Breathing becoming lame,
A kick-started rigor- mortis locking her jaw,
My father striving to restrain a law
My own hand withdrawing from a once-banging heart,
Never wanting a second nearing of what should be soundless.
A new contentment with a mentally arranged cart
That should to a fridge make it noiseless…
A resuming night nurse in a provocative see-through,
Richly delivering part of what Irene had said as true..
A hospital of some ineptitude
For losses borne with fortitude.
On this day, twenty- four years you left
Rock of ages for me cleft.
Categories:
asthmatic, dark, death, farewell, fate,
Form: Rhyme
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