EVERYTHING HURTS BUT YOU

 EVERYTHING HURTS BUT YOU

(FOR KYLE, ON YOUR BIRTHDAY) 

Everything hurts these days but you

The hips especially, having been ravaged by falls

The arms from the stiffness when the meds do not work.

The legs rigid as stout little toothpicks-

 On their slow journey to nowhere  

Everything hurts, like the loss of my brother

Cruelly cut down in his prime.

I had hoped and prayed we would have more time

But the gods who deal out life and death

Who micromanage human breath

Made the decision to spirit him away

And everything it hurts but you in the naked light of day.

Everything hurts but you, like my lower back and spine,

Who conspire at length against me, the cheater and his concubine;

Everything hurts like the blow that I took to the head

When I  fell in the bathroom and copiously bled

Down came the shower curtain, striking my head with the sharp end of the rod

I could have been a goner, but for the grace of God.

Everything hurts but you, like the dyskinesias that threaten to tear me limb from limb,

When the meds are working overtime, and my feet they move like mayhem.

Through all of this, my love, there is you, ever stalwart and  ever true,

You bravely walk beside me on this twisted path of pain 

Through the damaging winds and the driving rain that always falls in spurts

You are my treasured talisman that heals and never hurts.

You slow me down and calm my heart with a warm and wondrous glow.

And today on this your birthday,  I just thought that you should know.

-Bruce Potts

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