A poem for the newly disabled
It's been a long road. I'm glad you found us.
Welcome to your new world.
We move
a lot slower here.
Plans are often canceled.
Meals are often frozen.
We spell things wrong
and are covered in bruises.
We look at each other’s scars
with awe, knowing
they are marks
of survival.
We grieve a lot—
for the life we once lived,
and the friends we once had.
But we find joy
in allergen-friendly desserts,
extra-squishy pillows,
and treatments
that are finally approved.
It can be hard
for us to find each other.
It takes longer
for us to search.
They don’t want us to meet—
they want us to isolate,
to blame ourselves
for being sick.
We meet
in doctors’ offices,
treatment centers,
and corners of the internet.
And when we connect,
it’s magic—
we finally feel seen.
Someone who gets the pain,
who knows what it’s like
to be pushed
to the outskirts.
Someone who can finally see
how the world
really treats
bodies like ours.
Someone
who believes you.
So go back to bed.
We’ll be here
when you wake up.
This week in comfort
My chronic pain has been ROUGH in recent weeks. I keep returning to the words of Audre Lorde. Especially her book “The Cancer Journals.”
Because of my new diagnosis, I needed to get 4 tests and scans. I decided to schedule them all in one day. It was a long day, but now I don’t have to think about them again. 10/10 reccomend doing it this way
I saw three rainbows over the weekend. It was magical and I would like to ask the sky to give us more rainbows. It’s what the world needs right now.
This was soul-balm for my chronically ill self today.
This poem really resonated with me. Especially the part about celebrating finally approved treatments. It also made me realize I don’t have enough friends with disabilities, who really get what it means to slow down.