Lupus Bites

Lupus Bites

Poem by Iris Carden

Days of fatigue
nights full of pain
Lupus is snarling
as she slinks back again.

I live with the wolf,
she says in my ear,
Your life is now mine,
I’ll always be here.

She takes such delight 
in tormenting her prey
and oh what surprises
she brings day by day.

My mind often wanders.
It’s slow to return,
I’m weak and I’m sore
my inflamed joints burn.

Her foul breath on my skin
brings fever and rash,
Too sick now for work,
life plans fall to ash.

She leaves me alone
just prowls for a while,
Suddenly, she attacks
with a bloody-fanged smile.

She’ll kill me one day.
She’s taken others I know.
That monstrous wolf bitch,
chooses when we will go.

But, like all other lupies,
I shout with hoarse voice:
“I’ll keep fighting the wolf,
(because I have no choice.)”

I fight her with pills,
with diet, with rest.
I fight when I can,
and I hope for the best.

The fight leaves me drained,
so in pansomniac nights
I lie awake thinking
how much lupus bites.