Best Inhalers Poems
Emphysema is like
living underwater,
Surrounded by an ocean
of air,
Which just can't get
where it needs to be
Even if you lie quietly
In your home, your lair
You wake up gasping
As if you ran
Up three flights of stairs
And there are many moments
When you have terrible scares
It's uncurable
It's progressive
It's fatal,
And but a matter of time
you have left
And anybody's guess
Of how many years
you will have lost as a victim
To it's nasty theft
Inhalers, pills,
Nebulizer machines,
You'll do anything to breath
You'll go to any means
Some, like me
Find solace
Only in their sleep,
Others, I suppose,
Only when they weep
But it's the hand
God dealt me
And I accept it
For what it is
And long ago
came to grips
With what I face
in life
And hospital
visits
As familiar as
would be a wife
No one lives forever,
Save Jesus and Dracula,
And I have the advantage
One really quite spectacular
For I have a gauge
A hint of things to come
Makes every joy I taste
More savory than for some.
Categories:
inhalers, happiness, health, introspection,
Form:
Bio
Yes, indeed,
I'm not quite up to speed,
These days, anyway...
Let me tell you, if I may...
The 20 odd meds I must take,
Each and every day...
Hope you got the space in your hard drive,
To see what it takes, to keep me alive...
First, the conditions...Ventricular Fibrillation (Life threatening heart condition,
which brought me tons of seizures...and emergency heart surgery within an
hour...they implanted in my heart a computerized "Defibrillator" miniture version
of those big electric pads you see on TV medical scenes, where they
go: "Charge! Now!!" and the electric shock makes the body jump. I was told it
was that, or be dead in a month. And when the battery dies, it starts beeping
inside my chest...no doubt I'll be in a movie theatre at the movie's climax, and be
tossed by the usher (do they still have those?)....Second is COPD, today's term
for emphyzema...a degenerative lung disease...where suddenly you cannot
breath, you literally drown in a sea of air....This is a peachy one, has me in the
hospital 10 times a year, plus far more suseptible to goodies like pneumonia...
which I have gotten several times, and from which I just recently recovered.
The prognosis is poor, it is incurable, progressive (contantly getting worse),
terminal...I will eventually suffocate...and I'm always with a variety of inhalers and
nebulizers...a plug in version I got from a ex-co-worker's wife, with the same
disease, but much better specialists than me, although she died from it 2 years
ago, oddly, on my birthday (2-28) hmmmmm.....I already have a plot for me and
my Rosie...lovely place....I've survived bladder cancer twice...another benefit from
my long ago days of smoking -quit in 1994- when this first showed up- I'd go to
urinate, and pure blood would flow...naturally it soon clogged, and I swelled up
with blood....came real, real close to dead several times...and I'm not a
recreational drug user...so the pain was aweful, and the later Dr. check-ups a
fearful affair...a fiber optic camera inserted up the *****....any male's worse
nightmare...with good reason, the pain is unreal...It's my third favorite past time to
being beheaded, being castrated (near the same thing), and being burned at the
stake. Continued...
Categories:
inhalers, adventure, angst, health, recovery
Form:
Bio
Crackling Breathing
Wheezing black lungs
Toxins are seething
Tar parked among
Stubbornly apparent
Selfishly coherent
Still boldly smoking away
Stunningly idiotic
Inhalingly hypnotic
Ground Breaking Discoveries
Show less lung recoveries
Generations of addiction
Some have permanent affliction
They need inhalers today
Grippingly enthralling
People continue falling
Drug dealers are victorious
Selling drugs unglorious
Getting away with lawlessness
Covering up their flawlessness
Some smokers will never change
Guiltily societies hide
Gropingly searching for pride
Science blindly leading the blind
Legally no guideline is kind
Cancer seems ignored today
Smoking lungs expel away
Destroying life’s hope… is strange~
Categories:
inhalers, angst, death, devotion, introspection,
Form:
Rhyme
Frosted icicle ledges
Cold air surprises our noses
Hard diamond water forms ice
Asthmatics run for their inhalers
Dripping icicles forms well tipped arrows
Crystal spider webs of glass peeks from your windshield
Glistening blue-white quilt covers spring grasses
Evergreens wear their Snow hats and muffs proudly
Dainty snowflakes caught on tongues of children
Dainty perennials hide under their new heavy blankets,
Red hydrants turn into frosted candy-canes wearing white beanie.
Mystical magic surrounds Jack Frost’s handiwork.
Gay snowmen sports pink and green checked scarves,
stolen out of Mama’s closet.
Happy children, lying down in snow angel formation,
Older siblings, bribe younger sisters to stay home with hot chocolate while they go sledding.
Reluctantly take them with them, after their mothers discover their missing scarves.
Mothers stay home and enjoy hot chocolate.
Mystical magical winter.
Categories:
inhalers, winter,
Form:
Imagism
I just remembered the Eskimos,
Strangely not wanting where The Sun glows:
Cruel winters not making them less bold;
To snows their answer an overcoat…
One would think the Eskimos long sold
In some trade to Territorial Cold
Blocks of Snow to yield their Igloos
That the beast limits like Doors of Zoos…
The Eskimo who in knowledge grows
In languages trainable and he flows
I, a linguist, can try their Yupik
But in the end might buy a toothpick!
The Eskimo who everyone loves
Could infected hands shake without gloves:
In far-off Alaska, most, hiding,
With their lives also touched Biden…
Without inhalers No Eskimos
Prednisolones, first, before I go.
Categories:
inhalers, absence, america, change, community,
Form:
Rhyme
Please, your journeys suspend in winter
Death's Cold on The Body A Printer.
Correct! To Death speedily freeze,
Not salubrious Winter's chilly breeze.
This you tell Your Dearest Jacinta,
I could same say to Christ, The Carpenter;
Asthma's Patients: inhalers or wheeze!
Often, the time to keep saying ‘’Jeez!’’
They are careful who cherish their lives;
If you don’t against self wield knives:
Demand does Survival True Restraint,
On this Sages should not words paint:
It is not The Best of Wisdom
To in Winter assert ‘Legs’ Freedom...
A little rashness cross we The Bridge
And next catapulted to fridge.
Categories:
inhalers, death, fear, health, senses,
Form:
Rhyme
Addicts injecting, ingesting,
and inhaling their drugs.
It's a dangerous life,
trying to keep pace with the thugs.
The addict uses,
and pays dearly for the sin.
The disease,
effects all, it's under his skin.
The trenches are full,
of front-line soldiers affected by addiction.
The city and the state scream,
it's not their jurisdiction.
Addiction is not a choice,
that one makes,
They ended up,
addicts by mistake.
Addicts are not
moral failures,
Their wounded warriors'
drugs are their inhalers.
They are not,
week of character,
Dealing with emotional pain,
they hit a barrier.
Addiction is the reaction,
to emotional pain.
It's cradle to grave,
in the fast lane.
98% of addicts,
were harmed when they were young.
They often have,
mental issues and are high-strung.
Using drugs,
is an attempt to deal with the issues.
Without proper guidance,
the addict continues.
Something went wrong,
a long time ago,
From that day on,
it's been touch and go.
Shame, guilt,
I must be a bad kid,
When your young,
the pain stays hid.
It festers up,
much later in life,
It affects all
you, your kids and your wife.
You are not fully aware,
of this inner shame,
When you find it,
where do you put the blame?
You go crazy,
trying to figure out what to do,
You attempt suicide,
you trying to kill you……
Turbo1904
Categories:
inhalers, addiction,
Form:
Rhyme
Meanest Bouncer of visiting oxygen
Like a scarf of coarsest jean,
Ever keeping it and the nostrils at arm’s length,
Displaying its suffocating strength.
Oxygen keeps loitering at the fringes of the nasal chambers,
For as long as Septembers are from Decembers:
Kind of dreading an entry into them,
To the sufferer causing a paradise of problem.
Catchers, like a cross, hold their inhalers:
A pathological fear of everything parading propellers;
Tasty meals are robbed of their appeal,
Stylish dishes of chefs not a Big Deal.
Justifies the banging of doors against cold
And auctioning of freezers, not to be cold:
A pointed sealing of windows seldom shuttered
And shutting of the ears to sopranos shattered.
Categories:
inhalers, drug, health, recovery from,
Form:
Rhyme
A nose malady
autumn smells of burning leaves
inhalers handy
smoky trails wind heavenward,
‘midst sneezes I wheeze a word
Written November 12, 2022
Submitted to "Hiku, Footle, Tanka" Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Brian Strand
Categories:
inhalers, autumn, health,
Form:
Tanka
My asthma wheezing has kept me home today.
Saving my life no doubt, in a most wonderful way.
Winter advisory is on her way to dance and play.
No one who wants to live should be out today.
One of my inhalers is at school, but not a worry.
The birds and the squirrels are all a flurry.
There are things to cook with spice of curry.
But no time to waste, fret, worst of all worry.
My asthma wheezing has kept me home today.
Out of the traffic, so dark and mean, in every way.
I have a glass door, so hip hip hooray, like a play…
I am watching the fastest snowfall I have ever seen.
My asthma wheezing has kept me safe today.
Categories:
inhalers, 10th grade, 11th grade,
Form:
Rhyme
Mug, porcelain, sunflowers
Steam rising in soft tendrils
Aroma filling the early morning
Eyes focus
The kitchen table, littered with parts of our life
Bills, diaries, Pills, inhalers, tissues
Art, books, homework, bags, phones
Pens, colouring pencils,
Cards for magic tricks
Glasses, hair ties, bobby pins
Our life on the kitchen table
Eyes drift around the kitchen,
Tidy, untidy, lived in
We cook, we clean, we laugh, we argue
This kitchen in all of its mess and turbulence
This kitchen is our centre
Categories:
inhalers, home,
Form:
Free verse
A woman I had never met attended a meeting at work.
Someone asked "how are you?"
She gave us the rundown which lasted eight minutes.
“after my dad died, my husband got Covid.
My aunt was hospitalized. Our son got influenza A.
My best friend got pneumonia.
We all got sick and had to use inhalers.
My kitchen has mold.
It’s going to cost us sixty thousand dollars to fix.
My dog got hit by a car….”
I could mention the other sixty-two things she said,
If I had heard them.
But at this point I had shut off my interest level.
Categories:
inhalers, humorous,
Form:
Free verse
three inhalers
two bottles with one pill each
six receipts from dollar stores
one bedraggled checkbook
straw wrapper
three pairs of glasses, all smudged
I-phone
sunglasses missing one lens
twenty-three pennies
two nickels
twenty-seven dollars in a small coin purse
Kleenex
three credit cards
Medicare card
reminder to pay a bill from three months ago
I get rid of the pennies
hoping my purse will be lighter
Categories:
inhalers, me,
Form:
List