Little girl holds her head and cries but the crying makes the hurt worse and she can't stop and she cries and she cries and she cries and she vomits and she sleeps
Repeat
Repeat
Ad nauseum
And she knows now to keep an old pot by her bed just in case she can't make it to the toilet and her mother laughs and calls it the puke pot which only makes her feel worse because how many kids have one of these?
And then there are the doctors who say it's just nerves it's just all in her head because she's too high strung for a kid and here's some pills to calm her down but they don't help and she flushes them
Down
Down
The toilet
She learns to live with pain like it's the weather and sometimes it's just there in the background and sometimes it's not noticeable at all and sometimes it's all she can think about like a hurricane in her brain wiping out everything in its path
Drowning
Drowning
Coming up for air
Then there are the meds and their promises of redemption if only she'd add one more pill, one more vitamin, up the dosage, go off-label, stick with the brand name, stick it up your ass
And no major side effects to speak of so we won't speak of them
dizziness fainting abnormal body temperature glaucoma weight gain anxiety tingling odd taste weight loss poor concentration cognitive impairment numbness decreased libido depression poor concentration poor concentration poor concentration
Grown woman holds her head and cries and her daughter has the same damn disease and that makes her cry more and yes it is all in her head and she just wants it to
STOP
submitted for
The Poetry Bus hosted by NanU at
Have genes will travel
also submitted for
One Shot Wednesday, Week 42 at
One Stop Poetry
and
Poetry Month Clambake, Week Three
