ORTHOSTATIC

ORTHOSTATIC

I am orthostatic,

Blood pressure dropping when I stand,

When the room begins to spin

And your legs can't comprehend

Just what's happening

You know to sit back down and chill

No dancing on the windowsill.

Such a helpless feeling

When you should be dancing on the ceiling,

Lionel Richie would not be pleased, 

At this new phase in my disease.

I am sitting down like a libertine,

While swallowing the Midodrine,

The latest addition to my arsenal of potions

To aid and abet my locomotion.

Unlike being automatic, photographic, acrobatic,

Unlike feeling sharp and sure,

I end up feeling down and dour,

Unsure of where to go.

i am orthostatic, charmed by the vertigo,

Teetering on the brink of disaster 

I swear I can't dance any faster.

Orthostatic's an impressive word, it sounds downright benign.

When I am orthostatic, I cannot walk a straight line,

Swear I am fine, no, I'm not drunk,

But all the blood to my legs has sunk.

It's just a hypotension thing

You probably would not understand

How Parkinson's and orthostatic

Tend to saunter hand in hand.

I am orthostatic, limping and lunging,

Blood pressure falling, dangerously.plunging

Into the murky depths of sweet forgetfulness.

-Bruce Potts

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