Howling and Barking

This is a recent poem that was written this year (2017). I wrote this when I was pretty pissed off about a few lupus symptoms. Normally I'm not vocal about my diagnosis but this particular poem is.

Howling and Barking
Howling and Barking

Loose in my yard do the plagued dogs run
Howling and barking

Infected have they made my blood
From their attacking and biting

All day and night they bark and howl
As the infection spreads I do the same

I still exist as time passes
Howling and barking

Howling and Barking
Hacking and Coughing

Howling and Barking
Choking and wheezing

Not much time to breathe between
My howling and barking 

Reviews

[R J Askew]

I know it is no joke having a debilitating health problem, but you have certainly turned the frustration into a poem that bites. You animate the distress of it powerfully. The repetitions capture how the cough goes on and on. Yet, in weird way, you defeat the problem by making the poem short, by not dwelling on it, by not giving it head time.