Chronic pain is a thief
which stalks every bone and muscle
including the skull and brain
locking the flow across every sinew
of blood’s strength to reign
with ease and grace
across interstitial space.
Legs and pelvis lock in place
and the body can no longer race
along the path around the ponds.
Knees can no longer bend
to rest upon the earth and pull the weeds
nor plant the seeds
where the garden should grow.
Pain even steals words from where they reside
within the brain’s locked space
where dreams can no longer take hold
since sleep is stolen leaving behind
only grief and disgust at losses too great to abide.
The theft is its worst upon the face
where smiles are forced to hide
behind grimaces and half-closed eyes.
Laughter is the only relief to frozen space.
A sense of humor is the fiercer power
relieving pain hour after hour.
The deeper the laugh the looser the lock
that pain has placed upon the body clock.
Time passes with the pain as laughs invade
the place where pain thought to remain.
Laugh at pain and watch it rush,
pushed away by jokes and a comic crush.
annarino writes 