“You look so young”
In her mind she thinks “but I feel so old”
No one imagines when they are told
Joints swelling with fluid, pain felt sharply
Her eyes saddened at her inability
To do the things she used to do.
Wrenching pain in her life~ it intrudes
For each happy moment there has to be
A moment of pain known to so few, not to be seen.
For she smiles a smile to hide the hurting inside
She wants no piety , no sympathy,
For all of her life, she has carried much pride.
Her strength and resolve once admired by many
Now a body riddled with pain, fatigue, and disease
Life taken away, she feels wronged unjustly.
She hides the pain as well as she can
Till the muscles spasm and she begins the dance
Trying with might, to end them abruptly.
White knuckles protrude as she grasps any object
Trying to work through the pain as it rips
Through her body, with no seeming outlet.
Sweat and tears, exhaustion and pain
“Why me?” she cries, and remembers again
“We are never given more than we can carry“.
She wishes she were allowed to say when
The pain was too much, the tears cried in plenty,
Feeling the hurt known not by many.
The vessel that carries the love in her heart
Damaged, tattered, and worn
Her life ripped apart.
She smiles through tears so her children don’t feel
The pain that she has, the pain that’s so real
She can not face the fear it imparts.
Toward a life for them~ she knows not to impede,
Their lives engaged with “the sky is the limit”
Through all the troubles she wants them to succeed
Her prayers ring the house too often repeating “don’t let them suffer”
The pain that she feels through her damaged body.
Wanting for nothing more, nothing other
Then her children to have life free of the pain that she feels
She cries out to God, "Is this your will"?
I will carry this pain, this lupus you gave
Please remember I did so as I am laid in my grave.
Please spare my children, protect their young bodies
Please let them not hurt from this pain that I carry.
Please let this dear God be one of those things
Please let this dear God be not known by many.