This winter's cough that heckles me
Harasses my health, and saps my confidence
That I can survive the misery
Of microbe wars and pestilence
Raging at my blindness and innocence
For I have never met any face to face
Never wronged them
Nor see to intrude into their space
But they drowning me with phlegm
Make this invasion personal
Refusing to live with me as marginals
I would surrender
And go to sleep, go to sleep
Filled with the doctor's narcotic and helplessness
Coded in his bottles and boxes of medication
I would surrender
But I cannot yield, life is only expectation
And through the hacking night
My throat a living hell hold back my songs
Of tenderness and delight
For something in me is never sweet
When I come out to fight
This is my body, mine alone
My temple, and my universe
It shall not be my hearse
It shall not be my hearse
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