monkey on back syndrome
if you are silent, then you can see it,
beneath the din of reality
there’s the subtle screeching
of this pervasive pain situation.
what doctors dub as a ‘chronic pain condition’,
I illustrate as ‘monkey on back syndrome’,
(…there being this cliché of a monkey on my back,
…all too real, the monkey has become my back.)
See, this simian is my spine,
it’s imbued with fire,
the breath of blisters,
and the scratches of scars;
… it burns with all the
wrong kinds of warmth…
so, my doctors repeat: chronic pain is chronic,
and some kind of pill will always be necessary
to quiet this monkey’s riot,
to slow this monkey’s roll…
like some kind of pill
my doctors are ready to prescribe.
(…a shout out to all those poppy seed plants,
…here’s a little pill capable of belittling a lot.)
oh! some kind of pill!
that has me battling an everyday absurdity,
that in order to circumvent my monkey’s will,
I must fall under the pain pill’s authority.
oh! some kind of life!
spent with either the long racket of the monkey,
or the short leash of the prescription pain pill,
no! it is no kind of life!
when you are unable to reflect on beauty
without the tyranny of those wretched two…
05-19-10
M. L. Michael
monkey on back syndrome
if you are silent, then you can see it,
beneath the din of reality
there’s the subtle screeching
of this pervasive pain situation.
what doctors dub as a ‘chronic pain condition’,
I illustrate as ‘monkey on back syndrome’ […]
Every Breath Poetic 