it is never a great day
to have pink eye or shingles or hives
Every time I get these maladies
it is an unhappy reminder that
today will not be a great day
There's a tv commercial with a metaphor,
that some of us may have heard before,
"shingles doesn't care".
If one rolls the virus dice rsv and covid
aren't very nice but "shingles doesn't care."
Competitive bugs that are honing in on you,
like pneumococcal pneumonia too, but
"shingles doesn't care."
In between any tv show that's on the air
these pharmaceutical commercials loudly blare,
our brains on auto pilot, we blankly stare,
cause "shingles doesn't care." Do you?
Shingles is something I live with daily
Chosen for me by whom?
I have no idea.
I doubt it is my choice, as it is painful.
My skin is tender; shingles is red, raw, sore, and rough.
This disease is something I try to forget about every day.
I can push it back into the farthest corners of my brain.
If I am deeply engaged in painting, cartooning, or writing.
But then BAM it comes back in full force, unbidden, unwelcome.
This malady is something I have lived with for over two years.
My doctor has told me it might be until the end of my life.
I remember staring at a bottle of morphine and codeine one time.
The doctor had warned me if I took them both, I would die.
I was in enough pain at that moment to almost do it.
I have no idea why I didn’t.
I threw the morphine pills away,
so I cannot ever be tempted with that again.
In case the pain gets worse.
Serpigo, roseola, German measles, flu.
Shingles, chicken pox, pandemic Corona boo hoo.
Chilling fever, chest pains, aches all the way through.
Muscle fatigue, slap cheek, and mumps poking you.
I feel pretty great today. How about you?
shingles
hitting someone hard
in sheer pain
needing relief and respite
gruesome reality
lacking strength
energy annihilated
sorrowful amount of pain
The scratching wakes me up
Ridiculously unsatisfying
Yet notoriously put there by shingles
Or excruciatingly painful allergen.
A scream for help
Time is in my way
Sorry I sid not sneak my Excedrin pm into hospital
Morphine is not cutting it.
Each time more insistent
On a more potent drug
Poems are coming slowfully.
For I am most woefully
And truly most woefully
In the hospital doe-fully
Itching my skin until bleeding
More potent pills I am pleading
Poems are decidedly misleading
Me out of this stupor I’ll be needing
Dandelions are in short supply the news station warned us.
If you have not had your immunizations it might be too late.
There is a limited supply since people started to eliminate
dandelions from their yards.
A wise group of millennials figured out that dandelion oil
is a fast cure for some cancers, shingles, and ALS.
The doctors vaccinated the sports stars first.
The movie stars were next.
How soon do you think the vaccine will get to us?
Cousin Heb asked me.
Not sure, I replied, but we have dandelions in our yard.
Maybe it would help speed things up if I donated them.
I called the dandelion dream team and told them about my yard.
They were there in a day and a half, grabbing up dandelions
The way eight-year-olds grab up colored Easter eggs.
Here is a receipt for 6, 132 dandelions, the driver told me.
A check will be mailed shortly.
I do not want a check, I want the vaccine, I told him.
Sure, sure, he said, nodding his head, pretending to agree.
I have called their headquarters eight times this week.
I guess the answer is that commoners are not getting the vaccine.
If plastic surgery was free
And painless
And available
And fast
What would I have done?
Can they do eyes? Mine have floaters.
Can they create teeth? Many of mine are missing.
Can they do left hips?
Mine has shingles.
Can they operate on you when you have oozing open sores?
Can I make an appointment please?
For a new hip?
It has been almost four weeks.
Surely they are not contagious any more.....
Shall I curl up my legs?
Would that be a more comfortable position?
Shall I leave them straight out? Or will they go numb?
Should I lie on my left side or my right side?
As long as I do not sit on my bottom, things are okay.
Sitting on my oozing sores, is excruciating. Painful.
Too bad all of my hobbies include sitting.
Painting. Sitting.
Cartooning. Sitting.
Word games. Sitting.
Typing poems. Sitting.
Shingles on your bottom is EXASPERATING and painful.
This is my third week of hell.
I have decided to take back my power.
To retain my position as CEO of my health.
I no longer believe in shingles.
They have no power here.
For I am not acknowledging them in any way after tonight.
I have been paying too much attention to them, letting them win.
As CEO I have now banished them in the name of
Jesus Christ, and Archangel Michael.
They will not be with me tomorrow.
They have been thrown out, tossed out,
I have asked the devil to leave my body alone now.
I have had enough.
More than enough.
I am now again my own CEO.
Creatively Engaging Order.
I know this will get better
because I cannot fathom it feeling any worse
although my eighty-eight year old mother put
bleach on her shingles.
That was probably worse.
Do not be honest in emergency rooms.
When they ask about your pain
on a scale of one to ten,
do not say "one, ten, one ten, one TEN!"
They average this to 5 and send you home.
My girlfriend the nurse taught me.
If you want any relief you have to
say your pain is at least a seven.
It was no stretch to do that this week.
As it has mostly been a ten.
My pain level is an eight on a scale of one to ten.
Poor you, someone says. Someone who has no idea
That I have been running on pain levels of ten for three weeks.
An eight is terrific; great, something to strive for tomorrow.
Shingles has taken me hostage, inside my own house.
My body is her host, my mind wondering what I have done
in this lifetime or any other that was so bad that I deserve
a punishment like this.
I finally figured out today if I am sitting on a cold pack,
my pain level goes down to an eight. It took me two E.R.
visits, four days in a hospital and trying everything I could
fathom I could stand before I stumbled upon this wondrous idea today.
My skin is so hyper-sensitive that a horse fly landed on my
arm today and it felt like a honeybee digging a stinger into me.
The morphine pain pills did not cut it, so I got something else.
I hate to tell you, but they are not as effective as the morphine pills.
I have never in my life felt this level of pain.
I know there is a reason but I have no idea what it is.
I hope that I have suffered enough for all of my family and
All of my friends because I have suffered enough for every one of you.
Savage
Hurtful
Igneous
Nefarious
Grevous
Languishing
Enveloping
Sores
Sub Categories
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