
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.